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  • English
  • French
  • Japanese
  • Mandarin

Biography

Since 2009, Rhonda has been helping health care industry clients manage the array of legal issues that arise throughout their professional life cycles. She has provided guidance to health care companies from their formation/acquisition stage through their sale (private or public) and the various stages of development in between. Rhonda has also helped clients at all stages of development implement and adhere to compliance programs to ensure they operate in accordance with the many regulatory schemes applicable to the health care industry, including Medicaid and Medicare rules, self-referral and anti-kickback laws, and patient privacy laws such as HIPAA.

Rhonda focuses her practice on “senior living” providers: nursing facilities, assisted living and independent living facilities, hospice providers, and home health agencies. Rhonda has extensive experience advising this category of provider, in many cases supporting their transition from fee-for-service care to value-based care. Several of her clients are clinically-integrated networks of competing providers who collaborate to improve the quality, efficiency, and cost of long-term care in their region. She has also advised a state-wide coalition of competing long-term care providers in their formation of an ISNP, shifting control of cost and quality of care away from third-party insurers to the providers themselves. She regularly performs antitrust analyses of the collaborations proposed by her clients and offers concrete recommendations for minimizing their anti-trust risk.

Rhonda established and leads the firm’s Senior Living Working Group which supports the senior living market by bringing together FBT attorneys with a wide range of specialties such as Labor & Employment, Real Estate, and Finance. She also serves on the Legal Committee of the American Health Care Association, a nationwide industry association of senior living providers.

Rhonda received her J.D. in 2009, graduating first in her class (summa cum laude) from the Salmon P. Chase College of Law, where she served on the editorial board of the Northern Kentucky Law Review and as a justice of the Moot Court Board. Prior to receiving her J.D., she taught college language courses and worked with international businesses as an administrator and consultant. Rhonda is fluent in French, conversational in Mandarin Chinese, and also speaks some Japanese.

Other Info About Rhonda

Education

Law School

Salmon P. Chase College of Law, Northern Kentucky University, J.D.

Graduate School

Indiana University, Bloomington, M.A., East Asian Studies

Undergraduate School

Earlham College, B.A., Japanese Studies & French

Bar Memberships

Rhonda is licensed to practice in the following state(s):

Ohio, 2009

Recognition

Local & National Recognition

Cincy Leading Lawyers, Corporations, Health Care, 2021-2024

Super Lawyers®, Ohio Rising Stars®, 2018

Salmon P. Chase College of Law:  Dean’s Scholarship, Ernest Karam Book Award (twice), Rebecca Bloom Bettman Award (twice), John G. Tomlin Torts Award, John J. O’Hara Award, Grosse Moot Court Competition Semi-Finalist, 6 CALI Excellence Awards (highest grade in class) and National Telecommunications Competition

Professional Affiliations

Professional Affiliations & Memberships

American Health Lawyers Association

Ohio Bar Association

Cincinnati Bar Association

Civic Activities

Civic & Charitable Organizations

Pro Bono Partnership of Ohio, volunteer

Hamilton County Democratic Party Precinct Executive

LastMile Food Rescue, volunteer

FBT Community Outreach Committee, member

The Children’s Law Center, Board of Directors (since 2010)

ArtsWave (fka Fine Arts Fund), “Boardway Bound” program graduate

Bi-Okoto Cultural Institute, past Board Member

Greater Cincinnati Chinese Chamber of Commerce, former Director and Secretary

Presentations

Rhonda was invited to speak at the following events:

Introduction to Institutional Special Needs Plans, American Health Law Association webinar, Presenter, December 2024

Long Term and Post-Acute Care Law and Compliance conference, American Health Law Association, Presenter, 2024

Population Health Management Summits, American Health Care Association/National Center for Assisted Living, Presenter, 2019 and 2022

Major Publications

Rhonda is an author or contributor to the following publications:

Co-Author: “Nursing Homes Struggle to Survive an Employee Vaccine Mandate,” Thomson Reuters, October 8, 2021.

“Negotiating Pharmacy Vendor Agreements on Behalf of SNFs: Why Contention Often Centers on Drugs for Dual-Eligible Residents,” published in the May, 2016 issue of “PALS Advisor,” a publication of the American Health Lawyers Association Post-Acute and Long Term Services Practice Group.

Co-Author:”Ohio Peer Review, Telemedicine, and Hospital Admissions Bills Effective May 20, 2014,” Hamilton County Law Library News, May 2014.

Co-Author: “Physicians, Physician Practice Groups and Rulemaking Under PPACA” (co-author) in Health Care Rulemaking Guide: Administrative Rules Implementing the New Health Care Laws by Thomson Reuters, 2011-2012.

“Preventing Pillage and Promoting Politics: The Dual Goals of the 2009 US-China Bilateral Agreement to Restrict Imports of Chinese Cultural Property,” December 2009 issue of Art Antiquity and Law.

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