What Chevron Upheaval Could Mean for Health Care Enforcement

Published by the American Health Law Association

Written by Jim May, Tom Clarkson, and Jonathan A. Porter

This article is brought to you by AHLA’s Fraud and Abuse Practice Group

Over the last four decades, federal agencies have been free to implement laws with minimal checks by the courts, so long as those agencies’ implementing regulatory scheme is reasonable and not directly in violation of the enabling statutory structure. The judicial empowerment of federal agencies is perhaps most pronounced in the health care realm, where the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) and Medicare Contractors have created an entire ecosystem of rules, advisory opinions, and guidance documents that far exceed the structure created by Congress to implement the federal government’s largest health care programs and can be changed at the whim of the agencies and contractors.

Jim May

Jim focuses his practice on complex civil litigation, governmental investigations, and white collar defense. Prior to joining Wyche, he served as an Assistant U.S. Attorney for the District of South Carolina from 2012 to 2021. He was named Senior Litigation Counsel in 2018 and held that position until his departure.

While with the U.S. Attorney’s Office, Jim handled complex criminal prosecutions of bank, health care, and securities fraud, along with public corruption matters. He coordinated the Federal Bureau of Investigation’s examination of fraudulent Securities and Regulatory filings, made by executives of SCANA and other companies related to the abandonment of construction of a nuclear power plant in South Carolina. This investigation resulted in guilty pleas by the CEO and COO of SCANA and a Vice President of Westinghouse, also he led negotiations of obtaining more than $4 billion of ratepayer relief.

Jim also served as the lead and coordinating attorney for prosecutions across 20 federal districts for Operation Brace Yourself, an international health care fraud investigation. He teamed with the Department of Justice’s Healthcare Fraud Taskforce and the FBI to investigate and prosecute the transnational kickback scheme. Operation Brace Yourself was the largest single health care fraud investigation in FBI history, producing more than 150 convictions and over $1 billion in restitution.

Before joining the U.S. Attorney’s office, Jim was an assistant public defender for the Richland County (SC) Public Defender’s Office from 2007 to 2012, during which time he represented more than 1,800 clients. May obtained not guilty verdicts on numerous trials ranging from murder to drug trafficking to firearms charges.

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