George C. Demos

Partner

George Demos is a partner in O'Melveny's Los Angeles office and is the Co-Chair of the Firm's Health Care and Life Sciences practice. He works with institutional clients in health care adversarial and complex regulatory matters. George has served as interim General Counsel to a large, fully integrated hospital and health care delivery system. He is named as a top health lawyer in 2006 and 2007 by The Best Lawyers in America. George has extensive experience in federal and state anti-kickback and self-referral laws and the federal False Claims Act, as well as cost reporting and other reimbursement issues. George has substantial experience in the design and implementation of compliance programs, and has structured and conducted internal investigations and compliance audits. George also advises a wide array of health care industry clients on issues related to marketing and promotion of pharmaceuticals and medical supplies and devices, managed care laws, the structure and formation of joint ventures, and acquisitions and due diligence. In addition, George regularly counsels intermediaries that provide services to the industry.

Illustrative Professional Experience

• Represented CCMP Capital Advisors and Goldman Sachs Capital Partners in their attempted $6.4 billion acquisition of Triad Hospitals, Inc., the operator of 54 hospitals and 13 ambulatory surgery centers in 17 states
• Represented Alvarado Hospital Medical Center in U.S. v. Tenet Healthsystem Hospitals, Inc., Alvarado Hospital Medical Center, and Barry Weinbaum, a recent eleven-month criminal jury trial in which we successfully defended against charges alleging violations of the federal anti-kickback statute (judge declared mistrial on ground that jury was hopelessly deadlocked after failing to reach a verdict because of government's failure of proof; charges were thereafter dismissed)
• Represented WellPoint Health Networks Inc., in a series of nationwide RICO class actions that were consolidated into a Multi-district Litigation proceeding before the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Florida
• Representing a hospital in an internal investigation concerning a physician joint venture, including recommending and implementing certain corrective action measures
• Represented managed care organizations in class actions by IPAs and medical groups alleging price-fixing violations related to fee schedules
• Representing pharmaceutical manufacturer in six separate Attorneys General lawsuits alleging violations under state, federal, and consumer protection statutes related to the sale and marketing of prescription drugs
• Represented Knox-Keen entity in state court action alleging violation of state fee splitting and anti-kickback statute
• Represented an integrated delivery system in one of the largest joint criminal/civil health care fraud investigations by the Department of Justice involving Medicare and Medicaid cost reporting practices
• Represented a national managed care organization in the disposition of its integrated delivery system, which included a health maintenance organization, a hospital delivery system, and a physician clinic healthcare system
• Represented an acute care hospital investment fund in acquiring distressed hospitals
• Represented a private equity fund in acquiring a physician staffing company out of bankruptcy
• Represented a medical device manufacturer and nutritional product supplier in a multistate Medicaid investigation regarding the client's product pricing practices, and providing day-to-day advice to the client regarding product pricing issues in light of state Medicaid compliance issues
• Represented a governmental health care agency in a Department of Justice civil investigation of alleged over-billing
• Represented a hospital in an investigation involving TRICARE/Champus billing issues
• Represented a managed care organization in a county grand jury probe
• Represented a county medical health agency in a criminal investigation regarding Medicare billing issues
• Represented a managed care organization in a Department of Managed Health Care enforcement proceeding
• Represented a bank group in an asset sale of nursing home facilities in four states
• Represented a bank group in connection with enforcement actions against a specialized testing laboratory under the Clinical Laboratory Improvements Act of 1988

Professional Activities

Admitted to Practice, U.S. District Court, Central, Northern, Eastern, and Southern Districts of California; U.S. Court of Appeals, Ninth Circuit
Interim General Counsel, For a large, integrated delivery system comprised of a hospital, HMO, and physician clinic health care system
Member, American Health Lawyers Association; American Bar Association, Healthcare Law Section; California Society for Healthcare Attorneys; Health Care Compliance Association
Lecturer, Health Care Compliance Association; American Health Lawyers Association; International Business Forum; Institute for Applied Management and Law, Inc.; California Society for Healthcare Attorneys; Institute for International Research; Los Angeles County Bar Association
Languages, Conversational Greek and Spanish