Jennifer E. Michael

The fraud and abuse laws touch virtually every arrangement in the healthcare sector. Jennifer Michael draws on her experience as the former Chief of the Industry Guidance Branch at the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), Office of Counsel to the Inspector General (OCIG) to help healthcare providers and life science companies avoid potential fraud and abuse landmines and defend them in fraud and abuse investigations. Jennifer helps her clients structure their arrangements to comply with the federal Anti-Kickback Statute (AKS), the federal Civil Monetary Penalty (CMP) law, and other state and federal fraud and abuse laws and navigate government investigations under the federal False Claims Act (FCA). She also leads internal investigations for healthcare companies to identify and quantify potential overpayments from federal healthcare programs; advises on fraud risks of existing and proposed arrangements in connection with pending and proposed transactions; and designs, implements, and evaluates compliance programs.

Jennifer represents clients before the Office of Inspector General on advisory opinion requests, corporate integrity agreement (CIA) negotiations and CIA implementation, and voluntary self-disclosures. During her tenure at OCIG, Jennifer led the Industry Guidance Branch in issuing dozens of advisory opinions; the first-ever rescission of an advisory opinion; and Special Fraud Alerts, policy statements, and other guidance documents. She interpreted federal fraud and abuse statutes for the industry and supervised agency rulemaking and the issuance of waivers of fraud and abuse laws for specified arrangements involving alternative payment models being tested by the Center for Medicare & Medicaid Innovation (CMMI). She also provided technical assistance to congressional committees and other parts of the executive branch, including the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) and the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS). Jennifer spoke regularly on behalf of the Office of Counsel to the Inspector General at industry conferences, such as the American Health Law Association Fraud and Compliance Forum.

Before joining HHS-OIG, Jennifer worked for eight years in the health law practice of a national law firm. Prior to attending law school, she worked four years as a certified public accountant for a Big Four accounting firm.