Crawford, Michael J.

Barbara Stegun Phair is a partner at Abrams, Fensterman, Fensterman, Eisman, Formato, Ferrara & Einiger, LLP.

Ms. Phair focuses her practice on all aspects of health care law. She counsels health care providers on a broad range of issues, including legal and regulatory compliance, fraud and abuse, licensing, certification and enforcement, Medicare, Medicaid and third-party reimbursement, provider contracting and transactional issues, survey certification and enforcement, audits, advance directives, health care decision making, refusal of treatment and patients' rights issues. In addition, she represents health care providers at administrative proceedings. A respected health law attorney, Ms. Phair develops and implements corporate compliance and HIPAA compliance programs for health care providers and advises and represents providers with respect to compliance issues and investigations.

Prior to becoming an attorney, Ms. Phair worked as a registered nurse in various areas of health care, ranging from direct patient care to administration, and including discharge planning, quality assurance and utilization review in both the private and public sectors.

Ms. Phair is a member of the Surrogate Decision Making Committee, which is administered by the New York State Commission on Quality Care for the Mentally Disabled and the New York State MOLST Statewide Implementation Team. In addition, Ms. Phair has been appointed by the courts in various counties as court evaluator and guardian under Article 81 of the Mental Hygiene Law.

Ms. Phair has been published in professional and industry journals and is a contributing author to Long Term Care Facility Survey and Certification Guide, a comprehensive publication on the federal long term care survey and certification process published by Eli Research, Inc. Ms. Phair has presented programs to various health care and professional organizations on such topics as corporate compliance, fraud and abuse, advance directives, regulatory issues, patients' rights and guardianship.

Ms. Phair earned her J.D. from St. John's University School of Law, her Master's in Public administration concentrating in Health Policy, Planning and Administration from New York University, and a B.S., cum laude, in Nursing from Hunter College. She is a member of the American Health Lawyers Association, The Health Law Section of the New York State Bar Association and the Hospital and Health Law, Elder Law and Estates & Trusts Committees of the Nassau Bar Association. She also serves on Board of Directors of the New York Metropolitan Chapter of The American Association of Nurse Attorneys.