Photo of Michael R. Bertoncini

Michael R. Bertoncini is a principal in the Boston, Massachusetts, office of Jackson Lewis. He is a member of the Healthcare industry group and a member of the Higher Education group.

With a background as a former Deputy General Counsel, Michael understands first-hand the competing demands and unique challenges faced by in-house counsel. Before joining Jackson Lewis, he was responsible for all labor and employment law matters for the largest fully integrated community care hospital system in New England. Michael provides timely, practical advice that helps clients achieve their strategic goals while ensuring compliance with legal obligations.

With deep experience in a broad range of industries, Michael has a keen interest in the healthcare, higher education, museum, and arts & music sectors. He is dedicated to supporting clients in these areas, leveraging his extensive experience to address the specific challenges faced by institutions and organizations in these fields.

Michael regularly partners with clients to establish positive employee relations. In labor relations matters, he negotiates collective bargaining agreements on behalf of organized clients, represents clients in labor arbitrations and National Labor Relations Board proceedings, and counsels clients with respect to rights and obligations under collective bargaining agreements and applicable labor and employment laws. He also has extensive experience in advising organizations responding to corporate campaigns and negotiating neutrality agreements.

Michael’s privacy and data security practice focuses on advising clients on complying with HIPAA and other state and federal privacy and data security laws. He reviews and develops policies and procedures, written information security plans and integrated compliance programs to ensure his clients meet their obligations under privacy and data security laws. Michael represents clients in investigations of alleged data breaches and advises them on reporting obligations.. He also conducts workplace training programs on HIPAA compliance and related privacy and data security topics.

The Justice Department announced that it secured over $3.5 billion in settlements and judgments from civil cases involving fraud against the government in the fiscal year ending September 30, 2015 (“FY2015”). This is the fourth year in a row that the Justice Department has recovered more than $3.5 billion in cases under the False Claims

The Justice Department announced that it secured a record $5.69 billion in settlements and judgments from civil cases involving fraud against the government in the fiscal year ending September 30, 2014 (“FY2014”).  This marks the first time the Justice Department recovered more than $5 billion in these cases, bringing the total recoveries under the False

Continuing a trend we reported in January 2014, the U.S. Department of Justice announced another multi-million dollar settlement of alleged False Claims Act (“FCA”) violations.  In this case, Halifax Hospital Medical Center and Halifax Staffing, Inc. (collectively “Halifax”) agreed to pay $85 million to resolve allegations that they violated the False Claims Act by submitting

Hospice of the Comforter, Inc. (HOTCI) agreed to pay $3 million to resolve allegations that it violated the False Claims Act (FCA) by submitting false claims to the Medicare program for hospice services provided to patients who were not eligible for the Medicare hospice benefit.  HOTCI did not admit any liability in the settlement.  The

A federal court ordered Tuomey Healthcare System to pay $237,454,195 after a jury found that it had violated the Stark Law (restricting physician referrals and payments) and the False Claims Act (FCA) when it submitted 21,730 false claims involving physicians with whom it had financial relationships that violated the Stark Law.  United States ex rel.