Brian R. Stimson

Brian is a Litigation and Healthcare partner based in Washington, D.C. He previously served as the Acting General Counsel and Principal Deputy General Counsel of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (“HHS”), in Washington, D.C. Brian’s overarching goal at AGG is to deliver exceptional value to healthcare providers through more personalized service and creative fee structures.

Brian works to secure full reimbursement for providers. When administrative agencies make a rule or determination that reduces government reimbursement, Brian challenges the action on behalf of providers or their professional association. When major commercial payers deny or underpay claims, he brings a civil action or arbitration for the provider to recover what is owed.

Providers frequently retain Brian to defend them in federal and state administrative audits, investigations, and enforcement actions. He is uniquely equipped to defend providers in such matters as a former high-level HHS official. He has successfully guided an array of providers through revocations, payment suspensions, overpayment recoupments, Medicare debt collections, surprise billing investigations, civil rights investigations, Provider Relief Fund audits, and False Claims Act actions.

Providers also look to Brian as a trusted advisor on the regulatory issues adjacent to his litigation practice. Those issues include Medicare fee-for-service reimbursement, managed care contracting, the No Surprises Act and state surprise billing laws, the Medicare Advantage program, the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996 (“HIPAA”), Section 1557 of the Affordable Care Act, and the federal rulemaking and inter-agency process generally.

The insights that Brian brings from his years at HHS are what sets him apart from other lawyers. At HHS, Brian was the lead in-house lawyer for administrative litigation and HIPAA enforcement. He personally drafted and cleared agency rules as part of the inter-agency process and was a liaison to both the Office of Counsel to the Inspector General and the U.S. Department of Justice. His advice is pragmatic and solution-oriented because he knows how the federal government works, and always makes the client’s business objective his number one priority.

Brian was a partner at an Am Law 50 law firm in Atlanta, Georgia, before joining HHS in 2017. He was a partner at another Am Law 50 law firm in Washington, D.C., from 2021 through 2023.