Stephen Bittinger is a partner in the firm's Charleston and Washington, DC offices. He is a member of the health care/FDA practice group. Stephen focuses his practice on health care reimbursement compliance, defense and litigation, with an emphasis on government and private payer disputes on behalf of providers, suppliers, and manufacturers involved in the U.S. health care system nationally and from abroad. He has extensive experience representing large provider groups, home health agencies, medical facilities, ancillary service providers, medical labs, revenue cycle management companies, and drug and device manufacturers in matters including Medicare and Medicaid audits, private payer audits, federal regulatory termination and exclusion proceedings, False Claims Act defense, and health care revenue disputes. Stephen is one of the leading attorneys in the country on the law regarding the use of statistical sampling and extrapolation in the review and analysis of health care claims. He has served as an expert witness regarding federal reimbursement law in civil and criminal proceedings. Stephen has represented many providers with federal agency matters, including the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) Center for Program Integrity (CPI), the Department of Health and Human Services Office of Inspector General (HHS-OIG), the Department of Veteran Affairs (VA), and Health Care Fraud division of the Department of Justice (DOJ).