Heather O. Berchem

Heather O. Berchem, a partner at Murtha Cullina, serves as chair of the firm's Regulatory Department and Long-Term Care practice. She also is a member of the firm's Health Care practice.

Heather advises nursing homes, assisted living communities, CCRCs, hospitals, and home health care and hospice agencies on a wide range of regulatory, compliance, risk management and reimbursement issues. 

Her practice includes assisting clients in both Connecticut and Massachusetts with licensure; certificates of need; changes of ownership; Medicare and Medicaid audits and appeals; informal dispute resolution and other survey and certification issues; HIPAA compliance; investigation and reporting of security breaches; contract and policy drafting and review; developing and implementing corporate compliance programs; and responding to subpoenas and investigations by federal and state agencies.

Heather serves as counsel to the Connecticut Association of Health Care Facilities and the Connecticut Assisted Living Association. She serves on the American Health Care Association's National Legal Committee, is a contributing author of "Fifty State Survey of Certificate of Need and Licensure: Nursing Homes, Assisted Living, Home Health, and Hospice" and a co-author of the “Assisted Living Communities and Continuing Care Retirement Communities” chapter in The Post-Acute Care Handbook: Regulatory, Risk and Compliance Issues, both published by the American Health Lawyers Association. Heather has lectured on a wide variety of long-term care and health care topics both at the state and national level. She also served as a member of the Editorial Advisory Board for the American Health Lawyers Association's (AHLA) LTC-SIR Advisor. 

Areas of Focus