Jennifer Csik Hutchens Named Chair of American Health Lawyers Association Young Professionals Council

Jennifer Csik Hutchens has been named chair of the American Health Lawyers Association Young Professionals Council. Hutchens’ one-year term as chair began July 3; she previously served as one of two vice-chairs of the Council.

With more than 12,500 members, the AHLA is the nation’s largest educational organization devoted to legal issues in the healthcare field. The AHLA Young Professionals Council provides networking opportunities for young professionals in the health law community and encourages active participation in and contribution to the AHLA’s activities, events and publishing opportunities. The Council is composed of AHLA young professional members who have been in practice less than 10 years.

As chair, Hutchens will lead the Council in planning networking events around the country and will oversee the young professional content in the AHLA member magazine. She will also be responsible for developing free webinars on issues facing young professionals in the health law field and leading efforts toward the development of a new AHLA public interest resource, A Legal and Operational Guide for Free Medical Clinics.

Hutchens currently serves as treasurer for the health law section council of the North Carolina Bar Association and is a member of the education committee of the North Carolina Society of Health Care Attorneys and the entrepreneurship and fundraising subcommittees for the NCBA Lawyers for Entrepreneurs Assistance Program (NC Leap). She is also involved with her alma mater, serving as an alumni advisor for Duke Law School’s Health Law Society and as an admissions interviewer for the Duke Alumni Admissions Program.

Hutchens practices in the area of corporate and commercial law, with an emphasis on health care, joint ventures, and mergers and acquisitions. In the health care law area, she advises clients on regulatory and compliance issues at both the federal and state level, including the anti-kickback and physician self-referral (Stark) laws, corporate practice of medicine, and fee-splitting prohibitions and licensure matters.

Her transactional health care experience includes the negotiation of provider joint ventures and hospital acquisitions and the preparation of physician recruitment, employment, and service contracts for physician practices and hospitals. She has extensive experience advising and assisting clients with health care compliance self-audits, acquisition due diligence, corrective actions and self-reporting under the CMS Stark Self-Referral Disclosure Protocol and the OIG Self-Disclosure Protocol.

Hutchens received her law degree magna cum laude from Duke University, where she was awarded membership in the Order of the Coif and served as staff editor of the Duke Journal of Constitutional Law and Public Policy. She received her Bachelor of Arts summa cum laude from Duke University and was selected for Phi Beta Kappa.