Anthony J. Burba

Anthony Burba is a full service fraud and abuse counsel and problem solver for health care and life sciences companies looking to navigate the complex enforcement and regulatory environment in the healthcare industry. As a former federal healthcare fraud prosecutor, he is a trusted advisor on Fraud and Abuse issues, crafting creative solutions and customized risk mitigation strategies for both large, national healthcare providers and life sciences companies, as well as smaller, more entrepreneurial firms. He also regularly responds to and defends government investigations, and assists companies with building, reinforcing and executing on corporate compliance programs. Anthony frequently speaks and writes on topics related to corporate compliance, enforcement trends and regulatory issues.

As a federal prosecutor for the DOJ's Fraud Section Tony focused on prosecuting complex healthcare fraud cases and large corporate investigations of healthcare companies. Tony also served on the Appalachian Regional Prescription Opioid or ARPO Strike Force based in Nashville, TN. As part of ARPO, Tony prosecuted healthcare providers using unnecessary and dangerous opioid prescriptions to lure patients into various fraud schemes. Tony, with his talented co-counsel, tried and convicted the CEO of a large, Nashville based healthcare company as well as four Detroit physicians who engaged in an illegal "shots for pills" protocol.

Anthony (Tony) J. Burba is a partner in the Chicago and Washington, D.C., offices of Barnes & Thornburg LLP. He is a member of the Healthcare and Litigation Departments and the White Collar and Investigations and eDiscovery, Data & Document Management Practice Groups. Tony is a former federal healthcare fraud prosecutor with experience conducting complex criminal and civil investigations of a variety of health care providers and suppliers.

Tony's practice focuses on representing clients in a variety of industries in matters related to regulatory counseling, internal investigations and representation in civil and criminal matters against the government and private whistleblowers. His experience includes conducting a number of internal investigations resulting in self-referrals to the inspector general of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services and Centers for Medicaid and Medicare Services. He has assisted clients in structuring complex transactions and programs in accordance with federal and state regulatory requirements. In addition, Tony has represented both individual and institutional clients under investigation by a variety of government agencies, including the OIG, DEA and the Department of Justice and against allegations of providing medical unnecessary services, up-coding, billing for services not rendered, payment and receipt of kickbacks, as well as violation of physician self-referral laws.

Tony has experience advising clients in matters related to privacy and security requirements under HIPAA. His white collar and litigation background also makes him a regular adviser to large corporations in matters of proper information governance, electronic discovery and litigation hold activity.

In 2015, Tony was recognized as a Rising Star by Super Lawyers.

Tony is of counsel in Barnes & Thornburg's Healthcare and Litigation Departments, and a member of the firm's White Collar Criminal Defense Practice Group, practicing in the Chicago and Washington, D.C. offices. Tony's practice centers on assisting healthcare providers of all sizes with an array of fraud and abuse related representations. He is a trusted adviser to several Fortune 1000 healthcare companies on regulatory issues pertaining to healthcare fraud, waste and abuse. Tony works closely to find creative solutions to ensure that clients are able to pursue their business objectives without running afoul of federal regulatory requirements, including the Anti-kickback Statute and the Stark law. Tony's practice also includes large, national internal investigations into issues ranging from allegations of fraud made by federal and state enforcement authorities, allegations of wrongdoing raised by corporate whistle-blowers and other issues arising out of normal audit and compliance functions. As a former federal prosecutor, Tony also represents a variety of providers in defending Qui Tam actions brought by whistle-blowers under the federal False Claims Act.

Tony is active in the leadership of the American Bar Association's Health Law Section, serving as a vice-chair on the Membership Committee and the Planning Committee for the Conference on Emerging Issues in Healthcare. Tony serves as a vice chair of the Enforcement Committee to the American Health Lawyers Association. He is a regular speaker and writer on topics related to healthcare fraud and abuse, and criminal and civil enforcement in the healthcare industry.

Tony is a member of the FDA and Healthcare practice group at Arnold & Porter, where he represents a wide variety of health care clients, from individual physicians to large national health care companies in a wide range of white collar criminal defense and health care fraud and abuse matters. Tony's practice centers on internal investigations and representation in government investigations. Tony also advises clients with regard to compliance with health care regulations and statutes.

As a former federal prosecutor with the U.S. Department of Justice Criminal Division's Fraud Section, Tony has experience investigating and prosecuting a variety of health care providers for Medicare fraud and fraud related offenses. Tony brings this practical, government experience to bear when representing his clients.

In addition to his health care work, Tony also contributes to Arnold & Porter's pro bono efforts, by representing indigent criminal defendants in D.C. superior court.

Tony's practice at Ober was centered in the White Collar Criminal Defense and Government Investigations practice area and the Health Law practice area. The primary focus of his practice at Ober was assisting a wide range of healthcare providers, from individual physicians to large national health care companies, with a variety of healthcare fraud and abuse, and criminal enforcement issues. Tony also assisted health care clients with courtroom advocacy with respect to civil litigation, including defending cases involving False Claims Act allegations, and basic tort and breach of contract actions.

With respect to white collar criminal defense, Tony represented individuals and corporations indicted for Medicare fraud, environmental crimes, mail and wire fraud, obstruction of justice and the making of false statements.
Representative matters at Ober:
Performed internal investigation of a small rural hospital, and assisted with the negotiation of a False Claims Act settlement and a CIA;
Assisted a hospital in making a disclosure of reportable events under a corporate integrity agreement to the Office of Counsel to the Inspector General;
Assisted several hospital clients in navigating the new, and complex CMS Self-referral Disclosure Protocol;
Helped defend an institutional pharmacy client against allegations arising from purported irregularities in prescriptions for controlled substances.
Assisted in the representation of a federal judge in an impeachment trial in United States Senate;
Defended the chief engineer of a maritime vessel against a charge of obstruction of justice arising out of the alleged falsification of the vessel’s oil record book;

As a Special Trial Attorney with the Fraud Section in the Criminal Division, I worked on the Miami and Houston Medicare Fraud Strike Forces. While working in Miami, I assisted in handling guilty pleas of several defendants in connection with a fraudulent HIV infusion clinic. As a prosecutor on the Houston MFSF, I was responsible for the indictment or arrest of 22 individual defendants in three separate indictments. Each indictment shut down a separate fraudulent DME company in the Houston area. All told, the three Houston companies had submitted in excess of six million dollars worth of fraudulent claims to Medicare.

As a Presidential Management Fellow with HUD, I worked as a Healthcare Finance Specialist in the Office of Insured Health Care Facilities. As a special assistant to the director, my duties included general underwriting and portfolio management in the 232 and 242 programs under the National Housing Act. Important activities included creating a best practices group to review the HUD PMF Program, assisting with the LEAN processing of the 232 program, general asset management duties in the 232 and 242 programs and assisting in the drafting of approval covenants to allow a hospital to circumvent the Colorado taxpayer bill of rights through a complex lease/lease back structure.

Working on a part-time basis, I worked primarily drafting complaints for a debt collection company. I also assisted in the drafting and filing of corporate documents for a mixed martial arts promoter. Additional work included collection efforts against three Kentucky attorneys charged with bilking fen-phen class action clients out of millions.

As a summer associate and then as a law clerk, I assisted in a variety of civil and criminal representations. I assisted in the representation of a company in state and federal court, in a dispute over its Certificate of Need for open-MRI clinics. I also assisted in the representation of a father in a wrongful death action brought on behalf of his son. The case involved a novel point of Kentucky property law and resulted in a trial victory on liability and an ultimate settlement in excess of $1.5 million dollars.