is a prominent advocate for New Jersey physicians, dentists and other health care providers, and is a senior partner at Mazie Slater Katz & Freeman, LLC, a leading New Jersey class action and trial law firm. Mr. Katz represents health care providers and their patients in all types of managed care disputes including usual, customary and reasonable (“UCR”) disagreements, prompt payment disputes, unlawful bundling and downcoding of claims, improper coverage denials, class actions and managed care audits. In just the last few years, Mr. Katz has recovered several millions of dollars for his physician clients on UCR and prompt pay issues alone.
View All Of Mr. Katz's SuccessesSome of Mr. Katz's Recent Significant Recoveries
$39 million class action settlement. Sutter v. Horizon...
$4.34 Million settlement of underpaid emergency and pre-authorized...
Multi-million dollar dentist class action settlement, Kirsch v....
$2.4 Million settlement of underpaid emergency services claims...
$2.25 Million settlement of underpaid emergency services claims...
$1.38 Million Class Arbitration Settlement, Sutter, M.D. v....
Mr. Katz has been at the forefront in advising and representing physicians about compliance with all aspects of the New Jersey Out-of-Network Consumer Protection, Transparency, Cost Containment, and Accountability Act (commonly called the “Surprise Bill Law”), enacted on August 30, 2018. The new law, ostensibly designed to protect patients from balance bills for emergency services rendered by out-of-network providers, is chock-full of confusing and highly time-sensitive deadlines that physicians must follow to protect their legal rights to negotiate claim underpayments with insurers and to demand that insurers submit to mandatory arbitration if negotiations are unsuccessful.
Some of the critical time-deadline provisions of the Surprise Bill Law as well as the significant billing disclosure requirements physicians must follow under the new law are addressed here. The New Jersey Department of Banking and Insurance’s November 2018 Bulletin about the Surprise Bill Law, including important information and forms pertaining to arbitration under the new law can be found here. In December 2019, the Department of Banking and Insurance submitted its first Annual Report of the new law to the Governor.
A leading New Jersey class action lawyer, Mr. Katz has been appointed lead class counsel in many managed care class actions and among his many triumphs achieved a landmark $39 million class action settlement on behalf of tens of thousands of New Jersey physicians against Horizon Blue Cross Blue Shield, the largest health insurer in the state, relating to the carrier’s failure to process claims timely, appropriately and a national class action settlement on behalf of dentists against Delta Dental of New Jersey, and a dentist class action settlement against Horizon Blue Cross. Mr. Katz has shaped the law on class actions as a result of major court victories on matters such as the rights of plaintiffs to sue in the forum of their choice, and the rights of consumers and other victims to bring a class action even when there is an arbitration clause in a contract.
Mr. Katz is a certified civil trial attorney, a distinction held by less than 2% of New Jersey attorneys and is often interviewed by the media as a champion of the rights of health care providers and their patients.