Photo of Jonian Rafti, CIPP/US, AIGP

Jonian Rafti is an associate in the Corporate Department and a member of the Health Care Group. He regularly represents private equity investors, health systems, management companies, physician groups, and lenders in complex transactional and health care regulatory matters.

Since the start of his career, Jonian's practice has exclusively focused on representing a variety of clients in the health care sector. He leverages this industry experience to provide practical and market-driven insight to clients undertaking mergers, acquisitions, joint ventures, financings and other business transactions. In addition to his transactional practice, Jonian provides counsel on a range of regulatory requirements governing the practice of medicine and the health care industry, including the Federal Anti-Kickback Statute, Civil Monetary Penalties Law, Health Care Fraud Statute, Physician Self-Referral Law (Stark Law) and their state counterparts. He also advises clients on corporate practice of medicine restrictions, HIPAA and health data privacy, and health care technology matters.

Jonian is a Certified Information Privacy Professional (CIPP/US) and a Certified Artificial Intelligence Governance Professional (AIGP). As a law student, he worked at the Charities Bureau of the NY Attorney General’s Office on governance and regulatory disputes affecting state not-for-profit corporations.

He has previously served as member of the Board of Directors and Vice-Chair of The Andrew Goodman Foundation, and member of the Bard College Center for Civic Engagement's Young Alumni Advisory Council.

On July 20, 2022, the Office of Inspector General for the Department of Health and Human Services (“OIG”) issued a special fraud alert (“Alert”) advising “practitioners to exercise caution when entering into arrangements with purported telemedicine companies.” The Alert is only one of four such “special fraud alerts” that the OIG has issued in the past decade and it illustrates the importance of OIG’s statements.

OIG Flags Seven Characteristics of Telehealth Fraud

In the Alert, OIG cautions that certain companies that purport to provide telehealth, telemedicine, or telemarketing services (collectively, “Telemedicine Companies”) have carried out fraudulent schemes by: (i) aggressively recruiting physicians and non-physician practitioners (collectively, “Providers”) and (ii) paying kickbacks to such Providers in exchange for the ordering of unnecessary items or services, including durable medical equipment, genetic testing, and other prescription items. According to OIG, the fraudulent schemes have varied in design and operation and involved a variety of individuals, Providers, and health care vendors, including call centers, staffing companies, and marketers.

The onset of the COVID-19 public health emergency (“PHE”) led to a surge in the use of telehealth by health care providers. In addition, the PHE fueled a boom in the number of direct-to-consumer (“DTC”) telehealth platforms, many of which have relied upon COVID-19 regulatory waivers to launch and operate in multiple states across the nation. For the reasons discussed below, DTC telehealth platforms should re-visit their compliance plans and be prepared for increased state and federal regulatory scrutiny.