"We had a solid win. The jury returned a verdict of $127,000—only $29,000 in future medical expenses awarded to Plaintiff. Plaintiff asked for a range from $700,000 to $1,900,000 in closing argument. Tony Ulbrandt was extremely effective in his testimony—he came across as credible and fair." (Stephanie Brown, Esq. with Dodson & Associates in Alpharetta, GA in a personal injury & UCR case).
“We greatly appreciated HLN’s speedy response in meeting our tight deadline, and your fabulous job in rebutting the defense expert’s report contributed substantially to our settlement of the case.” (Jo Ann Niemi, Esq. with Anapol Weiss in Scottsdale, AZ in a personal injury case for the injured party with $194,000 in billed charges)
“We were able to successfully resolve this case at mediation on Monday. Thank you again for the thorough work that you did in a short amount of time for us.” (Danielle McCray, Esq. with Lowe Law in Atlanta, Georgia in a personal injury & UCR case for an injured party plaintiff with $522,000 in billed charges)
"We’ve reached a settlement in this case, which I believe is substantially lower than what we would have gotten without your helpful analysis. Thanks again for your help in this case." (Bradford Patrick, AUSA with US Attorney's Office in Savannah, Georgia in a personal injury & UCR case)
"I really liked the comparison between total charges and amount collected and your identification of potential double charges or medically unnecessary treatment that was referenced in your letter. Overall, it was very, very helpful. It will allow me to disburse to the client without fear of a collection lawsuit by the hospital.” (Adam M. Collins, Esq. with Hall & Collins Injury Law in Athens, Georgia in a personal injury & UCR case for an injured party plaintiff)
"Thank you again for your excellent work and testimony. I am sure it contributed to the Plaintiff’s willingness to settle!" (Megan E. Quisao, Esq. with Gray, Rust, St. Amand, Moffett & Brieske in Atlanta, Georgia)
"I am happy to report that the case settled at mediation this past Friday! I appreciate having had the opportunity to work with you and your HLN team. I believe that the three expert reports you and your folks generated went a long way toward moving this case to resolution. Please feel free to use me as a reference." (Phil Williams, Esq. with Williams & Associates, Gadsden, AL in a $1.5 million medical billing service dispute.)
"Thanks for your work on this. We (finally) have the case dismissed. It was a pleasure working with you, and I hope we have a chance to do so again in the future." (Gary Van Luchene, Esq. with Keleher & McLeod in Albuquerque, NM) in a case for a provider involving a Medicaid Managed Care Organization's improperly denied claims)
"I believe the defendant opted for a resolution due to your presence as a local Georgia expert willing to criticize them and the input you provided for the depositions. It was very helpful to have your input in preparation for the defendant's employee questioning." (Bricker S. Daughtry, Esq. with Fortson, Bentley and Griffin, in Athens, GA in a physician group's suit against their former billing service)
"Your testimony and report were critical in resolving the case. The reduced damages number you provided helped convince the plaintiff to significantly reduce her settlement demand and to base settlement on a much more reasonable value of her medical treatment." (Calvin Yeager, Esq. with Swift Currie McGhee & Hiers, in Atlanta, GA in an insurance defense case)
"As for the A_____ matter, we are very close to resolving the matter on terms very favorable to our client. We could not have gotten here without your expert help and assistance." And later that same day, "The A____ case settled. Thank you for your help!" (James J. Kelleher, Attorney with Morgan & Morgan, Atlanta, GA in a personal injury & UCR case for an injured party plaintiff)
“We did not settle at mediation, but we just did this morning, so this one is done and you can close our file. I appreciate your help as always, and your analysis was very helpful in terms of getting us to a point where the parties could come together and resolve the case.” (Russell B. Davis, Esq. with Downey & Cleveland, in Marietta, GA in an personal injury & UCR defense case)
"It was a pleasure working with you and your team, Lamar. As our defense developed, the AUSA threw in the towel and made [the defendant] an offer he couldn't refuse... We look forward to working with you again, perhaps in your capacity as a forensic CPA if I don't pick up another Health Care Fraud case any time soon." (Chuck Morgan, Esq., Criminal Defense Attorney, Charlotte, NC for a billing service provider)
"HLN's experts did an excellent job and I am sure it would have resulted in a nice verdict had we not settled." (Jeffrey A. Newman, Esq., Marblehead, MA in a Medicare qui tam case involving statistical sampling and medical record documentation)
"Again, I want to thank each of you for your time, efforts and diligence in helping with this case. I also appreciate your patience with me in helping me understand the information and guiding me to be able to present the information to the judges in a straight forward manner that was easy to understand, and demonstrated the [billing] problems with Dr. ____." (Scott M. Freshour, Esq, with Texas Medical Board, Austin, TX in a case on reasonableness medical charges and proper CPT coding.)
"I recently had the pleasure of working with Mr. Blount on a difficult case for a local large public hospital in the Reno-Tahoe area. I was in need of a rebuttal expert witness and Mr. Blount did an outstanding job of taking on the task and completing all of the necessary work in a short period of time, and during the Christmas/New Year Holiday to boot. His work was outstanding and went a long way toward leveraging a favorable settlement for my client. I would recommend Mr. Blount’s services to any attorney working in the health care industry." (Paul J. Anderson, Esq. with Maupin, Cox & LeGoy, Reno, NV in a case on the reasonableness of medical charges)
"The _____ case has settled. [HLN's report] caused the Plaintiff and his attorneys to become more realistic about the case and settlement negotiations. We appreciate all of your hard work, it was instrumental in helping us to get this matter resolved amicably. I hope we have an opportunity to work together again in the future. (Torrey D. Smith, Senior Assistant City Attorney, City of Atlanta in a personal injury case)
"Thank you for serving as one of our expert witnesses in [this medical malpractice case for the plaintiff]. We appreciate your professionalism and expertise. We would certainly be willing to retain you for future cases relating to your areas of expertise." (Eddie H. Cooper, Esq., personal injury attorney in Atlanta, GA)
"My firm and I thank you and HLN for your excellent professional service. Your expert report and court testimony was persuasive evidence and was instrumental in the jury’s unanimous decision in our favor." (Mike Walker, Esq. with Hopkins & Hubner, Davenport, IA in a legal malpractice case involving a previous Medicare qui tam settlement)
Attached is the ALJ’s decision in Dr. _______'s appeal. The ALJ invalidated the QIC's extrapolation, where most of the dollars were. Fortunately, and thanks to HLN's earlier work, the QIC upheld most of the claims in the sample, so we only had to appeal the small number of QIC-denied sample claims. The victory is sweet, because it completes the vindication of Dr. ______ who had been indicted for his billing. The indictment was thrown out, and about 98% of the total dollar amount of his claims were upheld." (James P. Kelly, Esq. with The Kelly Law Firm, Atlanta, GA)
“The trial court granted our motion for summary judgment, giving us a total victory, and the Court of Appeals affirmed the trial court's decision for the most part. You have done a great job for us. I hope we don't get to trial but I am glad we have you in case we do.” (William Noland, Esq. with James Bates firm in Macon, GA in a reasonableness of medical charges case)
"I enjoyed working with you. It was a difficult and complex case. Your role in the case was to address a specific issue about [Medicare] billing practices, and I thought you did an excellent job addressing that issue.... I found you easy to work with, responsive and accessible. If there is a “criticism”, it is that you are not cheap...." (Peter Akmajian, Attorney with Udall Law Firm, Tucson, AZ)
"I think things went as well as they could have under the circumstances this week. [HLN's Senior Coder] was very good and the government ultimately withdrew a couple of the failed claims as a result of her testimony. [HLN's Senior Statistician] did a good job too. The extrapolation testimony is pretty difficult to wrap your head around in general, but I think he did as good of a job as he could in trying to make it simple for the ALJ to understand." (Bryan Davis, Attorney at Davis Gilchrist & Lee, Santa Fe, NM, in a Medicaid provider's appeal)
“Lamar Blount helped us to establish that our client’s claims had not been fully paid by her health insurer. Mr. Blount’s knowledge of healthcare-billing practices is truly extraordinary, and yet he was able to communicate that knowledge in a way that an intelligent nonspecialist—in our case, a judge—could immediately and easily understand. Mr. Blount is professional, prompt, and unfailingly courteous. If we again need expertise on healthcare billing or similar issues, we will return to Mr. Blount without hesitation.” (Benjamin Gould, Attorney at Keller Rohrback LLP, Seattle, WA in an ERISA class action case)
"Your analysis and opinions were very helpful to me in getting this case resolved and I appreciate your willingness to undertake this matter on such a short time schedule. I hope to be able to use your services again in the future." (William Larsen, Attorney, Macon, GA in personal injury & UCR case)
“As a result of our meeting with the government today, we have worked out a plea to pretrial diversion where Dr. ____ will just pay restitution for the overpaid claims. Data provided by HLN was instrumental to moving this from the US Attorney’s offer for three years in prison to a pretrial diversion, so everybody is pretty happy. You were certainly a big help walking me through Medicare issues on billing for incident to and pass through services, as well as possible FCA defenses. Also, certainly feel free to include me in your list of references.” (Clinton Broden, Attorney, Dallas, TX in a Criminal Medicare fraud case)
"You are so great to work with. Somehow, you were “sent” to us and we are forever thankful for your personalized attention and dedicated service . The complete dismissal should take place within the next week. If we can ever work together again, it would be my honor and pleasure—thank you so much." (David Yewell, Attorney, Owensboro, KY in a Medicaid fraud case)
"In this complicated coding case under the False Claims Act, our Wyoming Assistant U.S. Attorney was reluctant to intervene on what we felt was an important issue. Our first effort at clarifying the issue with another coding service out of San Diego was a disaster. Fortunately, Lamar Blount, on very short notice, grasped the issues and assembled a very specific response we used to push the case to settlement. His information bolstered our position and allowed a favorable and fair result for my client. I could not recommend an expert more highly." (Jeff Gosman, Attorney, Casper, WY in a FCA case)
"I was very pleased with your work, especially your problem-solving approach, and your response time was the best I have ever seen. Plus, you are always pleasant and even-tempered, the value of which should never be underestimated when the pressure is on. Thank you for all of your help in getting this case resolved." (Alabama Attorney in a FCA case)
"Lamar was very responsive. He provided quick service by preparing his report on a rush basis, on-time and when we needed it. He understood the issues, and provided exactly the type of guidance that we needed. I would highly recommend his services." (NYC Attorney in a Hospital reimbursement case)
"HLN's research and analysis identified several key points in the case that we may have overlooked without you. Your help has been invaluable." (Physician defendant in criminal case)
"HLN sifted through a mass of documents, identified key facts and provided the unique insight overlooked by the other experts that was needed to provide our client with a much better settlement than we expected." (New Mexico Attorney in a Hospital billing case)
"I very much appreciated your thoroughness and timely assistance in my case. What seemed at first to be overwhelming became understandable with your guidance and perseverance. Thanks for your great work." (Texas Attorney in a FCA case)
"The jury returned a verdict in [our] favor, which was in no small part due to your testimony. The damages awarded were less than we wanted, but [client] is quite pleased he was able to vindicate his name. And again, thanks much for all your help. It was a pleasure working with you." (Colorado Attorney in an employment case involving medical record coding)
"I look forward to working with you again. You grasped the issues very quickly and I believe would have provided great assistance before the court and jury if called upon." (Texas Attorney in an economic damages case involving coding and prompt pay requirements)
"I want to thank you for your time, efforts and diligence in helping with this case. I also appreciate your patience with me in helping me understand the information and guiding me to be able to present the information to the judges in a straight forward manner that was easy to understand and demonstrated the problems." (State Medical Board Attorney in a case involving coding and reasonableness of rates)
"HLN's expert report zeroed in on the critical issues and was easier to understand than the opposing side's, and was helpful in reaching a satisfactory settlement without trial." (Texas Attorney in a case involving professional fee reimbursement)
'“HLN and Mr. Blount provided valuable research, assistance and expert information on a critical issue of Medicare and Medicaid reimbursement. I would highly recommend their services.” (Pennsylvania Attorney in a case involving lost profits based on Medicare and Medicaid reimbursement)
"Thanks for all of your assistance in this matter. In addition to the positive result that we were able to obtain for our client with your help, we were able to get a federal court opinion touting your qualifications as an expert in the field." (New Jersey Attorney in a Medicare FCA case)
"We appreciated HLN’s prompt and professional assistance, including the attorney referrals and suggested strategy for negotiating with a large commercial payer, which resulted in a very favorable settlement. HLN responded quickly with well-researched data and made appropriate use of the budget we gave them." (Practice Management and Billing Company)
