Erich Drotleff
DIRECTOR, HEALTHCARE LEGAL COUNSEL
SUTHERLAND HEALTHCARE SOLUTIONS
CLIFTON, NJ USA
MEMBER MILESTONE: 2016 JONATHAN S. SILBER OUTSTANDING COMMITTEE MEMBER OF THE YEAR NOMINEE
COMMITTEE AFFILIATION: HEALTH LAW COMMITTEE
What influenced you to join the Association of Corporate Counsel?
When I began my transition from law firm to in-house counsel, many colleagues recommended that I become involved with ACC. I was told that ACC was the only legal association exclusively for in-house counsel that provides committees dedicated to different legal practices. Since I had a health plan background and knew my area of interest was health law, I figured that ACC’s health law practice group would be a good fit. At that time, there was no dedicated ACC Health Law Committee.
What has been the most rewarding aspect of your career thus far?
Prior to law school, I worked as a contracts manager for a health plan. At that time, I was involved in negotiating contracts and enjoyed interacting with various departments that could possibly be impacted by the agreement. Whether it was claims, customer service, finance, IT, or compliance, I always enjoyed working with multiple stakeholders within an organization. Today, I still get to interact and work with multiple internal customer clients. I do so, however, wearing the hat of in-house counsel. For me, being a problem solver for the organization, and working shoulder to shoulder with the sales team is always rewarding.
What ACC resources have been the most beneficial to you?
I find the Health Law Committee’s monthly legal quick hits to be very informative. Additionally, our committee e-groups provide invaluable resource materials and information on different topics from the latest OIG updates to current developments for Pharma and Medical Device. The daily email updates from the Lexology ACC Newsstand also provide useful, relevant, and timely information.
What is the most interesting aspect of working for Sutherland Healthcare Solutions?
Each day brings a new challenge and a new opportunity. Sutherland provides revenue cycle management services, HIT, and analytics. As such, I enjoy working with our various business development heads in closing deals with provider groups, health systems, as well as commercial and governmental payors. Whether it’s working with finance or compliance, I enjoy having many “clients” within the organization; being both a problem solver and an attorney.
What are the biggest challenges in-house attorneys will face in the coming years?
I believe that in order for in-house counsel to become more effective within a corporate environment, we need to become better project managers. In-house counsel are no longer traditional law department attorneys. Rather, our work bridges many departments and functions. In order to be effective in-house counsel, we need to develop effective project management skills in addition to being effective legal advocates for our organizations.
You were recently nominated for the Jonathan S. Silber Outstanding Committee Member of the Year Award. Tell us about your contributions and accomplishments in service to the Health Law Committee.
As membership chair, I led several significant initiatives for the Health Law Committee (HLC) this year. In particular, I helped the HLC continue to build upon two innovative partnership programs in place with local ACC Chapters: (a) HLC Pro Bono events and (b) HLC Micro-Networking/CLE events. Forging relationships and partnerships with local Chapters was part of the broader HLC strategic plan for 2015-16 and I was instrumental for the HLC to accomplish these objectives.
One of my greatest achievements this year was finalizing a formal partnership with Wills for Heroes (WFH). WFH offers free estate planning services in 28 states for police officers, firefighters, and first responders who often lack access to such services. I recently coordinated a WFH event in New York on Ellis Island and am currently working to coordinate additional WFH events with other chapters across the country. HLC will continue to expand collaborations with WFH and our local ACC chapters for 2016 and beyond.
In addition to serving as membership chair, I have contributed to many of the Health Law Committee calls and have also volunteered to serve as a program organizer for a program entitled “I Care, You Care, We All Care About Medicare: A Year in the Mirror and Through the Looking Glass….” This program was one of four key annual meeting programs that was featured as part of the HLC’s annual “Health Care Track.” I also moderated several legal quick hits (LQH).
