Photo of Stephanie S. Sobkowiak

Stephanie Sprague Sobkowiak is chair of the firm’s Health Care practice and a prior member of the firm’s Executive Committee. Stephanie is recognized as one of Connecticut’s top lawyers for health care providers.

Described in Chambers USA as “a really strong lawyer” who “cuts through the nonsense” to solve problems, Stephanie represents hospitals, physician groups, dental practices, community health centers and others in the health care industry. In her role, she partners with her clients on corporate, regulatory, compliance, risk management, fraud and abuse, medical staff and credentialing matters, Certificates of Need, and HIPAA and other patient privacy issues. In each relationship, she strives to understand her clients’ goals and strategic vision in order help develop strategies that make sense in the context of their businesses.

Known for her negotiation skills, Stephanie credits her success to applying a pragmatic approach when putting together transactions or resolving disputes between her clients and opposing parties. She has negotiated countless corporate agreements, advocated for clients in matters before the Connecticut Department of Public Health, the Office of Health Strategy and the Department of Social Services and handled a variety of complex Medicare matters. She also drafts and negotiates purchase and sale transactions for clients in the health care space.

Stephanie frequently shares her knowledge of federal and state health care regulatory requirements by speaking at seminars and authoring articles. Her insight on these topics, as well as other timely risk-avoidance issues, benefits a wide audience of health care professionals, lawmakers, accountants, lawyers and others.

Based on the decision in a recent Connecticut Supreme Court case, patients may now sue physicians for breaching confidentiality. Previously, Connecticut did not recognize breach of confidentiality as a cause of action. The unauthorized disclosure at the heart of Byrne v. Avery Center for Obstetrics and Gynecology, P.C. involved a provider’s response to a subpoena. Subpoena compliance has long been an area of confusion for providers. After Byrne, not only must providers pay special attention when responding to subpoenas but now they must also worry about broader breach of confidentiality claims by patients.
Continue Reading Connecticut Recognizes New Cause of Action for Breach of Patient/Physician Confidentiality

Providers Beware: OCR Published Three HIPAA Settlements in Two Weeks, Signaling a Ramp Up of HIPAA Enforcement Activity:

Make sure risk assessments, business associate agreements and policies & procedures are in place and up to date.

In a two week period, the United States Department of Health and Human Services, Office for Civil Rights (OCR) published settlements with three different health care providers for violations of HIPAA. The settlements were not insignificant, ranging from $31,000 for a small physician practice, to $400,000 for a federally qualified health center (FQHC), to $2,500,000 for a wireless health services provider. Each of these violations and subsequent settlements should act as a cautionary tale to providers, both large and small, that they must continue to be vigilant in their HIPAA compliance efforts.
Continue Reading OCR Published Three HIPAA Settlements in Two Weeks, Signaling a Ramp Up of HIPAA Enforcement Activity