Skip to main content

Bridgette A. Keller

Of Counsel

[email protected]

+1.212.692.6735

Share:

Bridgette advises clients in the health insurance industry, including managed care organizations, PBMs, and integrated delivery systems, ACOs, and providers on a variety of regulatory, fraud and abuse, and business planning matters. Her practice centers on compliance with federal health care program regulatory requirements, with a focus on reimbursement issues and value-based contracting.

Bridgette regularly counsels clients regarding risk-adjusted reimbursement programs and the practices that support them, including Medicare Advantage Organizations (MAOs) and ACOs participating in the Medicare Shared Savings Program (MSSP). Bridgette has experience conducting and defending investigations regarding fraud and abuse issues, including billing compliance related to Medicare, Medicaid, and TRICARE. She also works closely with discount medical plans (DMPOs) and other clients in the health care industry on matters relating to compliance with state regulations.

Bridgette is interested in value-based healthcare. She works closely with payors, providers, and ACOs, on a variety of innovative collaborations and has experience negotiating and papering these relationships.

With a background in health care operations, Bridgette is able to provide clients with practical insight that includes a focus on the business implications of health care regulatory and compliance, internal investigations, and fraud and abuse analyses of proposed new procedures. Bridgette applies her experience in health system administration and ethics in health care to her health law practice.  Prior to practicing law, she worked as a health care ethicist at the Department of Veterans Affairs National Center for Ethics in Health Care (NCEHC) and held other health system operations positions within VHA.

Most recently, Bridgette began hosting Health Law Diagnosed, Mintz’s health law podcast and she is a frequent author on Mintz’s Health Law Viewpoints.

Experience

  • Counsels clients regarding Medicare Advantage risk adjustment compliance, including responses to OIG and CMS RADV audits.
  • Assists with communication and advocacy with federal health care program regulators, including CMS and the HHS OIG.
  • Drafts and negotiates complex services agreements between health plans and PBMs.  
  • Monitors changes and developments in state laws that impact the PBM industry and other related stakeholders.
  • Conducts internal investigations into potential fraud and abuse matters and manage multiple key stakeholders.
  • Develops and implements compliance reviews to recommend and identify compliance best practices.
  • Assisted with the defense and settlement of a five-year False Claims Act investigation conducted by multiple U.S. Attorney’s Offices and DOJ’s Civil Division on behalf of a national health care provider. We successfully convinced the Office of Inspector General for the Department of Health and Human Services not to pursue a Corporate Integrity Agreement.
  • Represented a national health care provider in a False Claims Act investigation conducted by the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of New York. The government ultimately declined to intervene, and the relator chose to voluntarily dismiss the case.
  • Assisted with the defense of a diagnostics company in a national criminal and civil investigation involving multiple US Attorneys’ Offices and state Attorneys' General Offices. The investigation involved alleged kickback issues and billing violations.
Read less

viewpoints

The US Department of Justice (DOJ), the Department of Health and Human Services’ Office of Inspector General (OIG), and other federal and state agencies continued to focus on health care enforcement as a top priority in 2014. 
Read more
On December 4, 2014, CMS issued additional guidance regarding rewards and incentives programs (“RI Programs”). This guidance elaborates on whether an RI Program can target members with specific diseases, whether rewards can be tied to health outcomes, how to value rewards and incentives, and gives examples of appropriate and inappropriate rewards and incentives.
Read more
Last week, a unanimous three-judge panel of the D.C. Circuit upheld the religious accommodation to the Affordable Care Act’s (“ACA”) contraceptive coverage mandate (Priests for Life v. HHS, D.C. Cir. No. 13-5368, Nov. 14, 2014). 
Read more
As we have been discussing, the Affordable Care Act (“ACA”) requires all health plans to cover preventive health services for women, including all Food and Drug Administration (“FDA”)-approved contraceptives, at no cost (i.e. no deductibles, coinsurance, or co-payments).
Read more
My colleague Bridgette Wiley in the Health Law practice authored a blog post entitled Government Issues New Rules for Religious Employers, But Health Plans, TPAs, And PBMs Are Still On The Hook To Provide Contraceptive Coverage in which she describes new rules that have been established for eligible organizations to take advantage
Read more
Read less

News & Press

Press Release Thumbnail

NEW YORK – Mintz is pleased to announce that 18 attorneys have been named New York Metro Super Lawyers and 11 attorneys have been named New York Metro Rising Stars by Super Lawyers for 2023.

Press Release Thumbnail

17 Mintz attorneys have been named New York Metro Super Lawyers and nine Mintz attorneys have been named New York Metro Rising Stars by Super Lawyers for 2022.

Press Release Thumbnail
Mintz is advising a consortium of investors led by TPG Capital and Welsh, Carson, Anderson & Stowe in their acquisition of Kindred Healthcare, Inc. The definitive agreement totals approximately $4.1 billion in cash including the assumption or repayment of net debt.
Read less

Recognition & Awards

  • Included on the New York Super Lawyers Rising Star: Health Care list (2020-2023)

  • ABA-BNA Award for Excellence in the Study of Health Law

Read less

Involvement

  • Member, American Health Lawyers Association (AHLA)
  • Member, American Bar Association (ABA)
  • Member, American College of Healthcare Executives (ACHE)
Read less