Overview
Alice Harris is an experienced health care, reimbursement, and compliance attorney based in the Firm's Columbia, South Carolina office, where she assists hospitals, health care systems, FQHCs, clinical laboratories, physicians and physician practices, skilled nursing facilities, assisted living/Community Residential Care Facilities, hospice agencies, home health care agencies, Continuing Care Retirement Communities, behavioral health providers, pharmacy providers, and other health care providers with a wide variety of matters. Her practice focuses on health care regulatory compliance, payor audit appeals and defense, reimbursement, billing and coding, Medicare and Medicaid exclusion and termination matters, credit balance issues, COVID-19 advice, 340B compliance and audit defense, Medicare and Medicaid reimbursement issues, FQHC compliance and reimbursement issues, health care licensing and CHOW, compliance program guidance, response to federal and state contractor audits, internal investigations, fraud and abuse analysis and litigation matters, federal and state survey and certification matters, Medicaid Cost Report appeals, EMTALA investigations, transactional compliance due diligence and health care CON and licensing, and other health care regulatory and litigation matters.
Alice has experience handling overpayment and extrapolated overpayment appeals related to Medicare, Medicaid, and Commercial payor audits, including UPIC, MIC, TPE, Medicaid Integrity, and other contractor audits. She also assists providers with proactive compliance assistance to reduce exposure to audits, as well as root cause examinations and the development of corrective action plans to address underlying issues related to ongoing payor audits.
Her compliance analysis and advice experience ranges from initial formation and restructuring of compliance programs, including policy and procedure development, to internal investigations, potential whistleblower exposure, and coordination of ongoing coding reviews.
Alice also has extensive health care litigation experience including:
- Defense of Medicare and Medicaid fraud investigations
- Defending False Claims Act allegations, investigations, and qui tam lawsuits
- Defense and appeal of Medicare and Medicaid overpayment and/or alleged fraud issues and payment suspension matters
- Defense of nursing home survey and certification matters
- Medicaid Cost Report appeals
- Defense of exclusion and termination matters
- Defense of EMTALA surveys and complaints
- Prior to joining the firm, Alice worked for an east-coast based law firm where she regularly provided regulatory analysis and litigation services and presented on health care matters.
- Alice also previously served as Operational Vice President of Corporate Integrity for Tuomey Healthcare System and as in-house compliance counsel for Spartanburg Regional Healthcare System.
Community & Professional
- Member, Health Care Compliance Association
- Member, American Health Lawyers Association
- Member, American Bar Association
- Member, South Carolina Bar
- Member, Richland County Bar Association
- Member, South Carolina Defense Trial Attorneys' Association
- Past Chairperson of the South Carolina Bar's Health Care Law Section
Recognitions
- Columbia Business Monthly's "Legal Elite of the Midlands," Health Care Law, 2024
- Best Lawyers in America "Lawyer of the Year", Columbia, SC for Health Care Law (2019, 2025)
- Listed in Best Lawyers in America for Health Care Law (2013-2021)
- Martindale-Hubbard “AV” Preeminent Peer Review Rated
- Turnaround Management Association's Non-Profit Company Transaction of the Year (2016)
Media
Presentations
- Speaker, Alabama Healthcare Law Seminar, “340B Program Basics and Recent Updates and Changes," April 26, 2024
- Speaker, SC Health Care Association Trade Show, “Nursing Home Regulatory Updates for 2024," April 21, 2024
- Co-Speaker, SC Health Care Association 2023 Winter Conference, “After the Survey: Tips for Writing Corrective Action Plans, Assessing Potential Penalties, and Engaging in the IDR/IIDR Process.”
- Co-Speaker, SC HFMA Fall Conference, “Preparing For and Defending Against Payor Audits: Tips and Strategies to Increase Success.”
- Speaker, Client CLE, “CMS Acute Hospital at Home Program.”
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Co-Speaker, SC Hospital Association 21st Annual CFO Forum, “Healthcare Law: Current Litigation Challenges to Monitor” August 19, 2022
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Co-Speaker, SC Health Care Association Summer Splash, “Hot Summer News: Recent Legal and Regulatory Developments” August 10, 2022
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Co-Speaker, The Carolinas Center's 46th Annual Hospice and Palliative Care Conference, “Hospice Audits: Tips and Strategies to Increase Success” August 2, 2022
- Speaker, SCHA Annual CFO Forum, "Current Audit Topics and Effective Strategies for Defensing Audits" August 18, 2021
- Co-Speaker, SCHA 20th Annual CFO Forum, "The Changing Liability Considerations Arising from the use of Telehealth," August 18, 2021
- Speaker, “Building Robust Compliance Programs: From Essential Features to Selection of Effective Compliance Leadership,” CASP Conference, January 11, 2021
- Writer: “Retain Payment for Your Services! Claiming Offsets in Overpayment Appeals,” November 2020 edition of Compliance Today Magazine
- Speaker, "Winning Payor Audits! Tips for Overcoming Denials," November 6, 2019
- Speaker, "Following the Payor Audit Trail," July 19, 2018
- Speaker, “At a Crossroads – EMTALA & Psychiatric Patients in an Era of Strained Resources,” January, 2018
- Writer, “Compliance Diligence in Buy-Sell Transactions,” Spring 2018
- Speaker, “Compliance Programs 101,” August 7, 2017
- Speaker, “EMTALA and the Behavioral Health Patient,” October 24, 2016
- Speaker, “Compliance 3.0: Maximizing Compliance to Reduce Individual and Organizational Risk,” April 25, 2016
- Speaker, “Enforcement Trends and Initiatives, Panel Discussion,” May 9, 2014
In the News
- Media Mention, Alice Harris and Jenna Godlewski’s article on preparing for the end of the Federal PHE was republished in South Carolina Lawyer’s September 24, 2022 edition.
- Alice Harris and Jenna Godlewski appeared on The Compliance Guy Podcast, Episode 2 on July 28, 2022, discussing the 2022 CMS Framework and Six CMS Trends to Follow for 2022 and beyond.
Taking the Pulse - A Health Care Podcast
Co-Host, Episode 11: Rev. Dr. Franklin Fant, CEO of Presbyterian Communities of South Carolina, Maynard Nexsen & NP Strategy, Columbia, SC, July 21, 2020
Paint the Medical Picture Podcast
Guest Co-Host, Season 2, Episode 3: Best Practices for Handling Payor Audit Letters, January 20, 2021
News
Insights
Videos/Podcasts
Nexsen Pruet's newest webinar series is focusing on Life Sciences companies in the Carolinas. These webinars will focus on various legal and regulatory issues that Life Sciences companies deal with on a daily basis. They are also designed to provide updates and strategies on how to deal with these issues.
The CDC and FDA paused the distribution and use of the J&J COVID-19 vaccine because there have been six cases of a side effect in the form of a rare type of blood clot. Health care attorney Alice Harris discusses what this means for the vaccine rollout in South Carolina.
Podcasts
In the News
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Media Mention, Maynard Nexsen Attorney Alice Harris Published in Law360's Healthcare Authority (Jarkesy Decision May Hit Key Healthcare Enforcement Tool)- 07.09.2024
- Media Mention, Alice Harris Offers Insight on HHS Audit Activity in McKnight’s Long-Term Care News
- Media Mention, Alice Harris and Jenna Godlewski’s article on preparing for the end of the Federal PHE was republished in South Carolina Lawyer’s September 24, 2022 edition.
- Alice Harris and Jenna Godlewski appeared on The Compliance Guy Podcast, Episode 2 on July 28, 2022, discussing the 2022 CMS Framework and Six CMS Trends to Follow for 2022 and beyond.
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Media Mention, Alice Harris Quoted on Medical Record Access in a Post-Roe World, 09.15.2022
Admissions
- State Bar: South Carolina