John Dratz, Jr. is licensed to practice law in both California and Oklahoma.
Are you a medical professional under investigation by a state or federal agency for healthcare fraud? Have you been charged with Medi-Cal or Medicare fraud by your local prosecutor, the California Attorney General or the United States Attorney? Do you face an administrative action affecting your medical business or your professional license? You need expert advice from a lawyer who has experience with the governmental agencies impacting your practice. John Dratz, Jr. has the background, experience, contacts, sound judgment, and aggressiveness to help you.
The Bureau of Medi-Cal Fraud and Elder Abuse within the California Attorney General’s Office vigorously prosecutes providers such as physicians, dentists, nurses, CNAs, laboratories, pharmacies, medical equipment suppliers, home health care agencies, hospitals, physician groups, medical clinics, skilled nursing facilities and adult day health care centers for fraud and abuse both civilly and criminally. The United States Attorney’s Office does the same. The factual situations leading to these prosecutions are often confusing, murky and are not clearly criminal. Therefore, it is possible for a provider to innocently or naively become involved in a situation that the provider considers a billing issue, but the government considers a crime. When the government takes the leap to start a criminal investigation into Medi-Cal or Medicare fraud, the provider’s business, reputation, license, and liberty are all at stake. There are also complex issues involving how a provider obtains its business and keeps its staff and customers. In many commercial ventures incentives, referral fees, free transportation and gifts are part of doing business and are universally recognized as legitimate business practices. In the Medi-Cal and Medicare world these business practices are called “kickbacks”. Ideally, the medical professional should seek advice before embarking on billing or marketing practices which are unfamiliar to the provider. However, it is often the waiting room full of cops with a search warrant in hand that first makes the provider aware that he or she is doing something wrong. My practice is here to help you should you be one of the targets of the government’s investigation or prosecution, whether you are guilty or not.