Profile

David Beck

Principal

As general counsel and chief ethics and compliance officer for over fifteen years for healthcare provider companies with billions in annual revenue, conflict was my daily bread. Disputes with payors, contract partners, regulators, patients, residents, customers, and others made up a major part of my to-do list. Some of these were garden-variety disagreements that could come up in any area of human endeavor, while many more arose from the complex web of local, state, and federal laws and rules governing healthcare in the United States. However a dispute came up, I became convinced that parties can do a better job of resolving issues through mediation, instead of surrendering control over the outcome to an arbitrator, judge or jury. This seems especially true when the parties expect to have a continuing relationship after the current problem is addressed. Even where no future relationship is likely, the process of seeking an outcome that all can accept through mediation can itself generate new thinking and new approaches to problems, even those that initially seemed quite distinct from the immediate dispute. Besides the obvious advantages of mediation over litigation in terms of cost and time, it is hard to overstate the benefit to the parties of having control over the mediation process and its outcome. And when a dispute involves questions about the application of healthcare laws like the Medicare Act – characterized by one federal judge as an “impenetrable thicket” of complexity – having a mediator with a thorough grounding in reimbursement, licensure, certification, and fraud and abuse rules can make the process both more efficient and more likely to yield a result that does not create other problems. I offer mediation services either virtually or in-person (with appropriate precautions as needed and without charge for travel time). Please contact me at david@dcbecklaw.com or call me at 202-258-5216 to talk about how I can help you.

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