www.HartfordBusiness.com • April 30, 2018 • Hartford Business Journal 3
Newsmakers
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Merger denied
"It forces us to consider
options that we have strongly
fought against."
Board of Regents
President Mark Ojakian
reacting to a regional
accrediting body's rejection of the state
community college's consolidation plan, which
could lead to school closures or tuition hikes.
A pitch for
sports betting
"There's a cost to maintaining
and making sure there is enough
regulation and security of all of
this data and where these bets
are going."
Former Major League Baseball pitcher Al Leiter
lobbying state lawmakers in Hartford for the
legalization and tight regulation of sports betting.
Robert J. Stillman | Lawyer, Pierce LLC
By John Stearns
jstearns@HartfordBusiness.com
Robert J. Stillman spent 25 years as an in-house
lawyer at health insurer Aetna, most recently as
vice president and counsel, so it was an adjust-
ment transitioning from cli-
ent to outside counsel when
he left Aetna in October to
join a West Hartford law
firm earlier this year.
Stillman is a lawyer for
Pierce LLC, where he's
working on cases involv-
ing fraudulent overbilling
by care providers on behalf
of private payer clients, or
health insurers. He also might assist Pierce on
healthcare whistleblower cases.
"I think my experience as a client will give me
great perspective on what private payers are con-
cerned about in these types of cases," Stillman said.
What attracted you to Pierce?
I worked with Pierce at Aetna and was im-
pressed with their focus and expertise. The firm
has tremendous capability using data analytics
to support its legal analysis of provider overbill-
ing. I was impressed with Pierce's approach in
trying to resolve a dispute prior to litigation, and
as a former client, I appreciated Pierce's creative
and flexible approach to fee arrangements.
You were involved in some big cases at Aetna.
Which one stands out?
Settlement of a nationwide class action suit
brought on behalf of physicians against Aetna.
The settlement was a creative way to address
concerns of the physician community and helped
advance Aetna's goal of improving its standing
with that community.
What do you think about CVS's planned acquisi-
tion of Aetna?
Aetna has a wonderful team of professionals
who can bring a wealth of talent and experience
to pursue the goals Aetna and CVS stated as
their reasons for merging.
What would most help control healthcare costs?
Stopping the overbilling and medically unnec-
essary testing would go a long way. Sadly, there
is a lot of fraud in the system, and both private
payers and government are looking for ways to
recoup monies paid unnecessarily and to deter
providers from fraudulent billing. This is the
primary focus of Pierce and why private pay-
ers want to engage Pierce to assist their special
investigative units in dealing with fraud.
Of course, fraud notwithstanding, healthcare
costs are high and the most effective and least
painful way to control them is to help people
avoid developing chronic illnesses that account
for so much healthcare spending.
VERBATIM
Robert J. Stillman
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