Healthcare is the most regulated industry in the country, and the rules change constantly. Stratagem Law Group gives providers a Washington healthcare compliance attorney who spent twenty years running healthcare organizations before practicing law. As a result, our advice reflects how facilities and practices actually operate.
Compliance Counsel from the Operator’s Side of the Table
Founding attorney Matthew T. Macklin served for sixteen years as a licensed nursing home administrator, led multi-facility operations, and answered to state surveyors and federal regulators. In addition, he served on Washington’s Board of Nursing Home Administrators from 2020 to 2026. Consequently, he knows what surveyors look for, how audits unfold, and where compliance programs break down in practice. Ultimately, that perspective shapes every engagement.
What a Washington Healthcare Compliance Attorney Handles
We advise and defend providers across the full range of federal and state healthcare regulation. For example:
- Stark Law. Structuring compliant physician financial relationships, compliance audits, self-disclosures, and defense.
- Anti-Kickback Statute. Risk assessments, safe harbor analysis, staff training, and defense of investigations.
- False Claims Act. Responding to investigations and qui tam suits, negotiating with federal prosecutors, and building corrective action plans.
- CMS and state surveys. Survey preparation, plans of correction, informal dispute resolution, and appeals of deficiencies and civil money penalties.
- Payer audits and recoupments. Billing audits, appeals, and insurance clawback defense.
- Professional licensure. Defense before the Department of Health, boards, and commissions.
- HIPAA and data privacy. Policies, risk analyses, business associate agreements, and breach response.
Who We Serve
Specifically, we represent skilled nursing facilities, assisted living communities, physician and dental practices, behavioral health agencies, home health and hospice providers, medical groups, and the executives who lead them. Furthermore, we serve management services organizations and investors entering healthcare who need a partner fluent in both deal terms and regulatory limits.
Prevention Is Cheaper Than Defense
Most enforcement actions trace back to gaps in documentation, policies, or oversight. Therefore, we help clients build compliance programs that satisfy federal guidance and hold up under scrutiny. Moreover, strong programs do more than reduce penalties. They also demonstrate good faith, which matters when regulators decide how to treat a problem. When an issue arises anyway, we move quickly to contain it, correct it, and, where appropriate, disclose it on favorable terms.
Matthew T. Macklin, JD, MBA
Managing Attorney. Sixteen years as a licensed nursing home administrator and twenty years in healthcare leadership before law school. Loyola University Chicago JD with certificates in health law and compliance.
Talk with a Washington Healthcare Compliance Attorney
Whether you are facing a survey, an audit letter, or a structural question about a new venture, early advice protects your options. Call 253-313-2284 or contact us online. For federal guidance on the elements of an effective compliance program, see the HHS Office of Inspector General.
Facing a Survey, Audit, or Investigation?
Available for urgent matters. Serving providers throughout Washington State, in person and virtually, and nationwide in federal matters.
