2024 Fall Conference - Chatham Bars Inn, Chatham, Massachusetts

 Monday, October 7, 2024

 Tuesday, October 8, 2024

 Wednesday, October 9, 2024

Grant Achenbach is an attorney and lobbyist in the firm’s Governmental Affairs and Public Advocacy Practice. Grant has extensive experience in the healthcare lobbying space. As a skilled tactician in the halls of the Indiana Statehouse, Grant uses his experience and extensive network of relationships with legislators and stakeholders to deliver value for the firm’s clients. Regardless of the subject matter, Grant’s work ethic and ability to clearly and concisely convey public policy goals has led to a consistent track record of success for the firm’s clients.

Grant joined Krieg DeVault from the Indiana State Medical Association, where he served as the Director of Government Relations. In this role, he represented the interests of Indiana’s physicians and physician groups and was responsible for developing and implementing the ISMA’s yearly legislative agenda. Mr. Achenbach also advocated for ISMA’s physician members before the Indiana Professional Licensing Agency, the Indiana Department of Insurance, the Family and Social Services Administration, the Indiana Department of Health, and other state agencies. 

Lauren Bailey serves as the of Vice President of Legal Affairs at the Louisiana State Medical Society (LSMS) where she splits her time between contract review, compliance, and legislative affairs.  Lauren represents the LSMS on the Louisiana Healthcare Commission, the Prescription Monitoring Program Advisory Council, and the Pharmacy Benefit Program Advisory Committee.   Before joining LSMS, Bailey served as executive counsel for Louisiana School Employees' Retirement System where she was responsible for drafting, monitoring, recommending positions on and testifying on behalf of its board of trustees relative to legislation. She is also a former attorney for the Louisiana State Senate and assistant attorney general for the Louisiana Attorney General's Office. The Berwick native is a graduate of Louisiana State University with a B.S. in Business Administration and received her J.D. from Southern University Law Center.

Mark Bonanno, JD, MPH is General Counsel and Vice President of Health Policy for the Oregon Medical Association. Prior to serving as in-house counsel, he enjoyed twenty years of private practice as an advocate for health care professionals and brought with him a dedicated interest in health care policy. In 2000, Mr. Bonanno founded the law firm Healthlawoffice.com to specialize in problem solving and regulatory guidance for health care companies and individual health care professionals. He remains of counsel to the firm.

Mr. Bonanno received his law degree from Lewis & Clark Law School and his graduate degree in public health from Boston University. He served as an adjunct professor of health law in the Mark O. Hatfield School of Government at Portland State University for twelve years and served terms as chair of the health law section of the Oregon State Bar and the Multnomah Bar Association group insurance committee. In 2014, he completed a three-year tenure as Chair of the 2,400-member Fraud and Abuse Practice Group of the American Health Lawyers Association. In that year, he was honored to receive the AHLA’s Patricia Meador Leadership Award. In 2015, Mark was appointed to the AHLA Board of Directors and reappointed for a second term in 2018. In 2022, he was elected to serve as Treasurer for the American Society of Medical Association Counsel and now serves as Secretary. He is licensed in the District of Columbia and Oregon.

Bradley E. Byrne Jr., Esq.
ProAssurance

Bradley E. Byrne Jr., Esq. is the Southeast Regional Risk Manager for ProAssurance, advising physicians, other healthcare providers, and practice administration professionals on healthcare risk management and professional liability issues. In private practice Bradley handled a diverse range of civil cases focusing on Title VII civil rights claims, business development, and athlete representation. He is a member of the Alabama Bar Association, the Birmingham Bar Association, the American Society for Healthcare Risk Management, and the Alabama Society for Healthcare Risk Management.

 Debra Cohn is a Senior Washington Counsel in the Division of Legislative Counsel in the AMA’s Washington office, where she provides legal analysis and counsel on legislative and regulatory proposals to AMA Advocacy and other staff, senior management, Board members, the Council on Legislation, and the Federation of Medicine.  Ms. Cohn has over 35 years of health law and policy experience and has been with the AMA for 18 years.  During this time, she has been the lead counsel in Advocacy with responsibility for federal health care reform, including the Affordable Care Act’s provisions relating to access to care and health insurance coverage, health insurance market reforms, and exchanges. Her issue portfolio also includes Medicaid, CHIP, and public health from A-Z, including the opioid epidemic, gun violence, and women’s health.  She has written numerous reports for the Council on Legislation and the Board on AMA strategic priorities and resolutions referred by the House of Delegates, helping to successfully advance AMA policy on preventing firearm violence, expanding coverage and treatment for substance use disorders, and supporting gay marriage.  Prior to joining the AMA, Ms. Cohn worked for two medical specialty organizations; a large public university system with five academic medical centers, medical schools, and health professional schools; a large health insurance trade association; a major academic medical center in New York City; the New York State Legislature; and practiced law for four years in two law firms.  She received her law degree from Georgetown University and her undergraduate degree in history (with honors) from Brown University; she is from Albany, New York.

Mr. Conley is Counsel in the law firm of Saul Ewing LLP where he practices in the Firm’s Business and Finance Department and the Healthcare Practice Group. Mr. Conley concentrates his practice in health care, government relations, and regulatory compliance matters.

Over his more than 40 year career, Mr. Conley has represented all types of health care professionals and businesses, including solo practitioners, hospital-based physician groups, large multi-specialty group practices, entire medical staffs, professional societies and their officers, surgical centers, physician-hospital joint ventures, out-patient diagnostic testing and treatment facilities, clinical laboratories and start-up technology companies. 

Mr. Conley is a past president of the Illinois Association of Healthcare Attorneys and served on its Board for six years and on its Diversity and Mentoring Committee. He has chaired the Illinois State Bar Association’s Health Care Section Council and the Chicago Bar Association’s Health Care and Hospital Law Committee. He remains active in bar association activities, currently serving on the Illinois State Bar Association’s Standing Committee on Legislation and its Health Care Section Council.  Mr. Conley also serves on the continuing legal education committee of the American Society of Medical Association Counsel.

A former appointee to the Illinois Secretary of State’s Business Acts Advisory Committee, he is a founding member of the successor Institute of Illinois Business Law, a nonprofit organization whose mission is to study the operation of laws relating to business activities, to develop proposals for the improvement of such laws and to provide research and advice to members of the Illinois General Assembly on such laws.

Mr. Conley also served on the Board and Executive Committee of Associated Colleges of Illinois, a nonprofit association of private liberal arts colleges and universities from 2005 to 2015. From 1991 to 2003, Mr. Conley served as Executive Director and outside General Counsel for the Illinois Educational Facilities Authority, a state agency. During his tenure, the Authority issued more than 4 billion dollars in revenue bonds to finance the construction and renovation of facilities for private, not for profit educational and cultural institutions throughout the State of Illinois. Under an appointment by the United States Trustee for the Northern District of Illinois, Mr. Conley has served as Health Care Ombudsman.

A frequent author and lecturer, Mr. Conley has written and lectured at legal and medical education programs on such topics as professional entities, series limited liability companies, physician/hospital transactions, physician employment agreements, health care compliance, physician perspectives on medical staff bylaws, corporate practice of medicine prohibitions, private equity investment in physician practices and physician burnout.

 Mr. Conley is a graduate of DePaul University College of Law and Carleton College.  He has been named a Leading Lawyer in Health Care by Leading Lawyers Network and served on its Advisory Board. He has also been named an Illinois Super Lawyer by Law & Politics.

Rick Hindmand is an attorney with McDonald Hopkins LLC in its Chicago office, where he focuses his practice on health care regulatory, compliance, reimbursement, data privacy, corporate and transactional matters. Rick serves on the Board of Directors of Partnership for a Connected Illinois, the Board of Directors of the Illinois Association of Healthcare Attorneys (IAHA), and the Illinois State Bar Association Privacy & Information Security Section Council. For additional information, see https://www.mcdonaldhopkins.com/Team/Attorney/r/Rick-Hindmand . 

Robert Kane, JD
Illinois State Medical Society

Robert John Kane, J.D., is Chief Legal Officer and Chief Compliance Officer, as well as Legislative Counsel, for the Illinois State Medical Society and ISMIE Mutual Insurance Company and its subsidiaries. He also serves as Adjunct Assistant Professor of Medical Humanities at Southern Illinois University School of Medicine, Adjunct Professor at Beazley Institute for Health Law and Policy, Loyola University Chicago School of Law, and Editor for the Illinois Association of Healthcare Attorneys (IAHA) Annual Survey of Health Law.  Mr. Kane is a certified health care privacy compliance professional (CHPC) and a certified compliance and ethics professional (CCEP).  Mr. Kane is a graduate of Marquette University and DePaul University College of Law.  Mr. Kane was formerly President of the IAHA, the Government Bar Association and the American Society of Medical Association Counsel.

He has written and spoken on various issues in health and administrative law, and is author of Administrative Rulemaking in Illinois: A Handbook for Rulemakers and Practitioners (Center for Legal Studies, Sangamon State University, 2d ed. 1990 republished in various forms by the Illinois State Bar Association 2001, 2008, 2023), and co/editor-author of the “The Law of Medical Practice in Illinois”, updated annually (1989-Present).

Richard H. Levenstein, JD is a shareholder at Nason Yeager. He practices in the area of complex commercial, civil litigation, physician and medical staff representation. Mr. Levenstein represents clients with business disputes, including actions arising from contracts or torts; his practice also has a heavy concentration in representing individual physicians, professional medical practices and the physician leadership of organized medical staffs around the State. He has successfully challenged the policies of major hospitals and has won several substantial victories that have shaped the law to protect physicians and medical staffs. Mr. Levenstein is a Board-Certified Business Litigation Lawyer and a Florida Supreme Court Certified Circuit Civil Mediator. He represents clients in state and federal court, and in administrative proceedings. Originally from the Bronx, New York, Mr. Levenstein earned his Bachelor’s Degree in 1973 from Tulane University in New Orleans and earned his Juris Doctor in 1976 from Tulane University Law School. He has practiced in the State of Florida since 1977 and has experience both as a sole practitioner and as a partner in several major firms. He practiced in Boca Raton for 18 years, before relocating to Martin County. In addition to his legal work, Mr. Levenstein is the founding President of the Justice Major B. Harding American Inn of Court and former President of the Martin County Bar Association. He has served on several Florida Bar Committees and serves on the Board of many national organizations including the American Inns of Court Foundation, The Lawyers Committee of the National Center for State Courts and the American Judicature Society. He is deeply committed to educating the public about the importance of a fair and impartial judiciary, and trains lawyers and judges around the Country how to do so, through the Our Courts America initiative. Mr. Levenstein is also a Supreme Court Certified Circuit Civil Mediator, serves as Adjunct Professor of Healthcare Law at Tulane University Law School and a lecturer at Tulane University Medical School.

Jamie Ostroff is California Medical Association’s Chief Legal Officer and General Counsel, overseeing CMA’s Center for Legal Affairs. Mr. Ostroff leads CMA in defending the rights of physicians in the courts, the legislature, and before regulatory agencies. He also helps CMA navigate the politics and policy of complex health care issues before federal and state regulators and to drive the public interest mission of the association and its physician members.
As General Counsel, Mr. Ostroff provides legal counsel to CMA’s Board of Trustees, CMA’s subsidiaries, and the executive management team. Mr. Ostroff manages the Legal Center’s efforts to educate members on issues impacting the practice of medicine through legal publications, educational webinars, and presentations. Mr. Ostroff is a frequent presenter on legal, policy and business issues impacting the health care industry at state and national conferences.
Prior to joining CMA, Mr. Ostroff served as the Chief Legal and Compliance Officer of Hill Physicians Medical Group, the largest independent physician association in Northern California. Before his position with Hill Physicians Medical Group, Ostroff was Associate General Counsel at Blue Shield of California. 
Mr. Ostroff graduated summa cum laude from Southwestern University School of Law and, while in law school, served as an intern for the Honorable Harry Pregerson of the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit. 

Gene Ransom, III, JD
MedChi

 
Molly Reese, JD
AMA Advocacy Resource Center

Lisa Riley, MPH, PA-C, DFAAPA has been a physician assistant for over 30 years, specializing in orthopedic surgery and musculoskeletal trauma. Since becoming a fulltime faculty member with PA-Boston in 2018, she has worked with the didactic faculty, providing lectures on MSK medicine, acute pain management, and MSK radiology. Lisa developed a palpation lab for 1st year didactic students to augment their learning in Gross Anatomy and is teaching the Intro to Public Health course for the first time this fall. Lisa recently led a national workgroup of PAs in developing a suicide prevention curricular module for PA programs. She currently sits on the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention (AFSP) board of directors.

Diomedes Tsitouras, JD, MPA
AAUP - BHSNJ

Diomedes Tsitouras JD, MPA is Executive Director of the American Association of University Professors - Biomedical and Health Sciences of New Jersey, a labor union of 1500 faculty at Rutgers and Rowan Universities who teach the next generation of doctors, nurses, scientists, and health professionals. Before that, he was Executive Director of American Association of University Professors -University of Connecticut Health Center chapter. His work on behalf of both unions brought more multi-year appointments, higher minimum pay standards, better access to childcare/parental leave, and less gender based inequity

As a lawyer, Mr. Tsitouras he has advocated for individuals from different backgrounds including nurses, immigrants, crime victims, and law enforcement to name a few examples. In January 2020, Mr. Tsitouras was appointed by New Jersey Governor Phil Murphy as a Commissioner to the New Jersey Civil Service Commission. In this capacity, he renders fair and impartial decisions on appeals made to the Commission.

Mr. Tsitouras holds degrees in labor relations and public administration from Cornell University, as we as juris doctor degree from Indiana University.

 
Alicia Wagnon, JD
California Medical Association

Alicia Wagnon is the Vice President of Patient Safety and Innovation, Deputy General Counsel, and Director of Corporate Affairs at the California Medical Association. Alicia has had a decades long career as an advocate for physicians of California with a focus on professional liability, medical ethics, and end of life care. Alicia has provided leadership and expertise defending California’s gold standard medical liability reforms in the courts, in the legislature, and in initiative campaigns. Alicia was at the table as a primary negotiator and author of AB 35, the MICRA Modernization of 2022. 

Kelly Walla, JD is currently the General Counsel for the Texas Medical Association (TMA). Ms. Walla has 21 years of legal experience and 15 years of legislative advocacy experience. Prior to joining TMA, she was an associate in the private law firms Arter & Hadden, LLP in Dallas and Bean & Bean, LLP in Houston. Ms. Walla earned her Bachelor of Arts degree in political science, summa cum laude, from Southeastern Oklahoma State University in 1997, and her juris doctor, with honors, from The University of Texas School of Law in 2000. She received her Master of Laws in health law from the University of Houston Law Center in 2008.  Ms. Walla currently serves on the council for the Health Law Section of the State Bar of Texas and on the board of the Texas Alliance for Patient Access, and she is immediate past president of the American Society of Medical Association Counsel. She also chairs the policy subcommittee for TMA’s staff diversity and inclusion committee. Ms. Walla is a member of the Choctaw Nation of Oklahoma.