ARBITRATION

Paulette is a trained arbitrator and will be available through the American Health Law Association (“AHLA”) arbitrator roster.

WHY CHOOSE PAULETTE AS YOUR NEUTRAL?

Paulette has extensive experience with health care-related disputes involving both providers and payors. From 2002 through 2015, she held senior in-house leadership positions with health plans and payor/provider organizations.  In these roles, she oversaw defense and affirmative litigation, including disputes in arbitration which involved risk arrangements, as well as coding and payment disputes. Early in her career, she spent a decade as a federal and state prosecutor, including in the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of New York. This experience provided a strong foundation in state and federal litigation, investigations, and dispute resolution.  

From 2002 to 2008, Paulette served as Director and Associate General Counsel at Oxford Health Plans, which later became part of UnitedHealth Group. Her role focused on litigation defense and affirmative litigation, including disputes involving providers and hospitals brought in arbitration. 

She was also part of a team of lawyers that represented a health plan in an arbitration of a claim seeking rescission of a multimillion-dollar reinsurance contract covering a large provider risk arrangement.  A panel of actuaries ordered the reinsurer to indemnify more than $50 million of the health plan’s costs.  

She has been on both the winning and losing side of the arbitrations.  

Since 2016, she has practiced at law firms as a partner in the health care groups, representing large IPAs, MSOs, vendors, hospitals, and other healthcare providers in contract negotiations as well as disputes.  

As a neutral, she brings that combined perspective to healthcare matters, with the goal of advancing the mission of arbitration to be “fast, fair and final” while resolving issues in a manner that reflects knowledge of the healthcare industry, understanding the law and contract that is central to the dispute, and helping parties by reaching a confidential, well-informed resolution.

PRIVATE MEDIATION

Paulette is also available to serve as a private mediator for business entities. She brings a unique combination of healthcare industry and regulatory knowledge, transactional and operational experience, and business acumen to help parties resolve complex disputes.

Her experience enables her to understand not only the legal issues involved, but also the operational, financial, and regulatory considerations that can affect a business and its ability to move forward.

Her goal is to help parties reach practical, informed resolutions while avoiding the cost, disruption, and distraction of prolonged litigation.