Nadia de la Houssaye is co-leader of the firm’s healthcare litigation team and heads the Healthcare Industry telemedicine team. She works extensively with hospitals, health systems, providers, and start-up companies to structure and integrate telemedicine, telehealth, and digital health platforms.

Nadia has a broad-based litigation and health care regulatory practice advising clients from across the industry spectrum. She has 25 years of experience with traditional healthcare issues such as medical malpractice defense and hospital-physician relations, including exclusive contracts and medical privileges and credentialing, as well as certificates of need and licensure, medical coding and reimbursement, and fraud and abuse laws, including federal and state EMTALA actions, Stark and Anti-Kickback violations, and False Claims Act violations.

Nadia provides ongoing counsel to large hospital systems in managing and reducing human error and medical malpractice exposure by conducting a systematic audit of the following areas: quality assurance/quality control and peer review protocols that withstand judicial scrutiny; medical staff bylaws, rules, regulations, and compliance protocol; physician licensing and credentialing policies, with a particular focus on telemedicine; board and senior management involvement and supervision; oversight of nursing staff, technicians, and aides under the direction of telemedicine physicians; the proper roles for risk managers and risk management committees; and implementation of Medicare secondary payer reporting requirements.

An industry thought leader, Nadia is chair of the firm’s telemedicine team. Her passion for the expansion and growth of telemedicine began in 1997, when she co-founded and served as general counsel to one of Louisiana’s first teleradiology networks. In 2004, the company merged with another network, creating Nighthawk, the nation’s largest teleradiology network at the time, with headquarters in the United States, Australia, and Germany.

Since 2004, Nadia has continued to provide strategic counsel to healthcare providers and hospital systems on telemedicine service lines, including international telemedicine arrangements involving multistate and international licensure and scope of practice issues, cross-border compliance issues, patient consent requirements, commercial payor reimbursement issues, Medicare and state Medicaid billing requirements, and coverage and reimbursement issues. Nadia currently represents the largest health system in Louisiana with its litigation and telemedicine.

An active member of the American Telemedicine Association, Nadia speaks and moderates sessions at its yearly fall forums and annual meetings. She also is a member of numerous healthcare organizations, including the American Hospital Association, the ABA Healthcare Section, the American Healthcare Lawyers Association, and the Louisiana Hospital Association. Nadia is admitted to practice in all state and federal courts in Louisiana and Texas.

Honnors and Awards