Adjunct Professor
E-mail: jdechene@wisc.edu
Biography
JAMES C. DECHENE has over thirty years health law experience in both private practice and in-house positions. He currently serves as Senior Vice President and General Counsel for the University of Wisconsin Hospitals and Clinics Authority and Interim President and CEO of University Health Care in Madison, Wisconsin. Prior to that, he was a partner in Sidley Austin LLP's national health care group for over twenty years. He also has served on a number of Boards of health care providers and third party payors.
Mr. Dechene is nationally known for his work on health care reimbursement, including Medicare, Medicaid and other third-party reimbursement programs and alternative delivery systems. He has represented a number of companies who were the subject of investigations or litigation involving alleged violations of the false claims act, health care fraud and abuse and self-referral laws. He regularly counsels clients on compliance with those laws. He has represented health care entities in various acquisitions and consolidations and other miscellaneous health care ventures and transactions. He also advises clients on legal issues relating to the provision of telemedicine and health information services.
Mr. Dechene's clients have included a broad range of companies involved in providing health care services, including hospital systems, skilled nursing facilities, pharmaceutical companies, durable medical equipment companies, manufacturers of prostheses and other medical implants, laboratories, independent diagnostic testing facilities, ambulatory surgery centers, physicians and physician groups, and physician practice management companies. His work for these clients has involved the full spectrum of health care regulatory issues that such clients face.
Mr. Dechene is the author of CD-ROM law school case books Health Care Reimbursement and Delivery Systems (2002) and Health Care Fraud & Abuse and Stark Issues (2004-2010) and the co-author of Telemedicine and E-Health Law (Law Journal Press: 2004-2010). He also has contributed numerous articles and chapters on a wide variety of health law topics. These include: "Bankruptcy Proceedings Affecting Healthcare," chapter in Health Law Practice Guide, (AHLA and Clark Boardman: 1993-2005); "Preferred Provider Organizations," chapter in Managed Care, (Little Brown: 1996); "Public Health Care Reimbursement Programs," chapter in Financing and Liability (Little Brown: 1994); Establishing a Physician Organization, (American Medical Association: 1993); "Application of Merger Guidelines to Hospital Consolidations," chapter in 1993 Health Law Handbook, (Clark Boardman: 1993); "Medicare Secondary Payer Program: Implications for Providers and Third Party Payers," chapter in 1991 Health Law Handbook, (Clark Boardman: 1991); and "Stark II and State Self-Referral Restrictions" (Health and Hospital Law 65, June 29, 1998). He has been recognized by such publications as Best Lawyers in America and Chambers USA.
Mr. Dechene is an Adjunct Professor at the University of Wisconsin Law School. He was an Adjunct Professor in the LL.M. Program at the DePaul University College of Law Health Law Institute between 1987 and 2009. Mr. Dechene received his B.S. in Mathematics, summa cum laude from Santa Clara University, his A.M. and Ph.D. in Economics from the University of Michigan, and his J.D., magna cum laude, from the University of Michigan Law School.
