Board Certified in Labor and Employment Law by the Texas Board of Legal Specialization; a Fellow in the American College of Employee Benefits Counsel, and peer-recognized a Martindale-Hubble “AV-Preeminent” (Top 1%) and “Top Rated Lawyer” with special recognition LexisNexis® Martindale-Hubbell® as “LEGAL LEADER™ Texas Top Rated Lawyer” in Labor and Employment Law and among the “Best Lawyers In Dallas” in “Labor & Employment,” “Tax: ERISA & Employee Benefits,” and other skills, Cynthia Marcotte Stamer is highly sought out and acknowledged for 30+ years’ of combining her expansive legal and management knowledge, tools and problem solving skills to help domestic and multinational performance dependent business, government and community organizations and their leaders improve performance, solve problems, reduce risk and promote other goals by managing people, performance, change, risk, crisis and other operational goals an outside general counsel, special counsel, on demand, special project basis.

Co-Chair of the American Bar Association (“ABA”) International Section Life Sciences and Health Committee and Vice-Chair Elect of its International Employment Law Committee, Chair-Elect of the ABA TIPS Section Medicine & Law Committee, Past Chair of the ABA Managed Care & Insurance Interest Group, Scribe for the ABA JCEB Annual Agency Meeting with HHS-OCR, past chair of the ABA RPTE Employee Benefits & Other Compensation Group and current co-Chair of its Welfare Benefit Committee, and Chair of the ABA Intellectual Property Section Law Practice Management Committee, Ms. Stamer is most widely recognized for her decades of pragmatic, leading-edge work, scholarship and thought leadership with workforce and performance management, compensation, benefits, safety, and other workforce and services management of workforce recruitment, hiring, performance management and discipline, investigations, compensation, employee benefits, change management, sentencing guideline and other compliance program design and defense, labor management relations, labor, government, outsourcing, and other contracting, and other with critical workforce and staffing, employee benefits, safety, contracting, quality assurance, compliance, privacy, knowledge and data protection government audits and investigations, change management and other legal and operational compliance, risk management, public policy and operational concerns. 

Ms. Stamer’s legal and operational experience encompasses advising and assisting management to design, implement, administer, enforce and defend legally defensible workforce, compliance, internal controls and other management policies; responding to emergent questions and requests for support of clients arising in the course of operations on a real time basis; guiding the planning and execution of reductions in force and other workforce and other operational reengineering in response to regulatory enforcement or changes, mergers, acquisitions, bankruptcy, government or other audits and investigations, and other changing business needs; guiding highly regulated businesses like health care, insurance, banking, governmental contractors and governmental agencies to implement and defend compliance and internal controls and respond to other evolving regulatory or business demands; development, implementation, administration and defense of cutting edge programs, practices, technologies and other operational and regulatory reforms to workforce, employee benefit, health care, safety, retirement, privacy and data security and other business and industry challenges; designing and helping to develop new insurance, administrative or other workforce, benefits, compensation, data and technologies, and other products and solutions; monitoring, strategic planning, input and advocacy on a multitude of U.S. workforce, health care, pension and health benefit, education, immigration and other reforms; drafting, negotiating, interpreting and enforcing key employment and other services, managed care and insurance, employee benefit, data security and other key contracts and policies; and representing management and other clients in negotiations, audits and investigations, and disputes with employees, vendors, governmental agencies and others.

Her extensive legal and operational knowledge and experience with employee benefits, compensation, labor and employment, and outsourced services, health and safety, regulatory, business operations, tax, contracting, insurance and risk management, contracting, trade secret and other confidential information and security, governance, and other legal and operational matters equips Ms. Stamer both to support clients with real-time on-demand services needed to respond to emergency situations as well as to assist clients on an outside or interim general counsel our special counsel basis with strategic planning, program review and redesign, contracting, audits and investigations, administration, negotiations, advocacy, and dispute mitigation and resolution special project/special counsel, long or short-term outside counsel/consultant, expert witness, board/management advisor or in a wide range of other strategic or operational advice, representation, operations, coaching and training, investigations, defense, governmental relations and affairs or other capacities.

Her experience also includes advising and representing a diverse range of businesses in relation to the prevention, investigation and defense of EBSA, WHD EEOC, OSHA and other Labor Department; DOJ, OFCCP, HHS, Department of Education, HUD, DOJ and other other federal and state investigations, audits, and enforcement lawsuits and other enforcement actions of Civil Rights, nondiscrimination, safety, wage and hour, privacy, confidentiality, drug testing, employment and other tax, worker classification, harassment and retaliation, and other laws; as well as advocacy before Congress and regulators regarding federal and state workforce, equal opportunity, equity, industry specific regulatory compliance and other laws.

For more information about Ms. Stamer or her health industry and other experience and involvements, see www.cynthiastamer.com or contact Ms. Stamer via telephone at (214) 452-8297 or via e-mail here.

A Fellow in the American College of Employee Benefits Counsel, Cynthia Marcotte Stamer is nationally recognized for her decades of leading edge experience counseling employers, unions and other employee benefit plan sponsors, fiduciaries, insurers, administrative services providers, employee benefits technology and data, and others on health and welfare benefit plans — medical, life, disability, cafeteria (Section 125) plans, flexible spending accounts, health reimbursement arrangements, health savings accounts, and fringe benefit programs — alongside the full range of retirement and executive compensation arrangements including:

• Health, Welfare & Cafeteria Plans — Insured and self-insured medical, life, disability, and accident plans; Section 125 cafeteria plans; health and dependent-care flexible spending accounts; HRAs and ICHRAs; HSA-qualifying high-deductible plans; and retiree medical
• Fringe Benefit Programs — Educational assistance, adoption assistance, transportation, group legal, wellness, and other IRC fringe benefit arrangements.
• Retirement & Executive Compensation — 401(k), 457, profit-sharing, defined benefit and cash balance pension, and 403(b) plans; IRC Section 409A, SERPs, and equity and incentive compensation.
• Governmental & Tax-Exempt Employer Plans — State and local government, church, and nonprofit benefit program design and compliance.
• Government Contractor Plans and Employee Benefit and Fringe Benefit Obligations—Davis Bacon, Service Contractor Act and other federal and state government contractor fringe benefit plan obligations, program design and administration, compliance and recordkeeping, subcontracting, and audits and enforcement actions.
• Multiemployer and Single Employer Collectively Bargained Plans—Collective bargaining responsibilities, strategy, and negotiations regarding employee benefit and fringe benefits; interpretation of and compliance with collective bargaining agreements and plan obligations; employer coverage, contribution and other responsibilities, withdrawal liability and other responsibilities arising from workforce, collective bargaining, plan termination or other events.  
• Multiple Employer, MEWAs, Fraternal Benefit, and Association Plans and Programs - MEWA , fraternal benefit, association and other multiple employer welfare, plan or insurance arrangements including federal and state regulatory compliance, reporting, fiduciary and other responsibility and liability management and mitigation, contracting, funding, insolvency, termination or other liability prevention and resolution.

Ms. Stamer has developed and used her deep command of ERISA, the Internal Revenue Code, the Affordable Care Act, COBRA, HIPAA, MHPAEA, and a multitude of other employee benefits and related federal and state laws to counsel, represent and defend plan sponsors, plan fiduciaries, insurers, TPAs, brokers, and other plan service providers, and others about employee benefits and executive compensation on a full range of employee benefit matteris including:

• Plan sponsor, fiduciary and vendor counseling and representation on plan drafting, interpretation, administration, plan governance, fiduciary selection and process, prohibited transactions, claims and appeals, and vendor oversight.
• Plan/program design and documentation
• Compliance
• Fiduciary responsibility and process 
• Fiduciary qualification and selection
• Vendor qualifications, selection, contracting, performance, and compensation
• Plan data and technology use, management and compliance
• Claims and appeals investigation and administration
• Employee benefits and executive compensation issues in bankruptcy, mergers, acquisitions, and other business transactions and events including benefits due diligence, plan integration, harmonization, and termination, withdrawal liability, and representations, warranties, and change-in-control arrangements
• No Surprises Act and other out of network claims processing and dispute resolution
• Prevention and defense of government and third-party audits, investigations and enforcement actions
• Litigation prevention, strategy and management
• Governance
• Legislative and regulatory relations and affairs
• Legal research and analysis, compliance and gap audits, and corrective and voluntary compliance filings.
• IRS, EBSA/DOL, PBGC, HHS/CMS/OCR, and EEOC Department of Insurance and other federal and state agency examinations, investigations, and enforcement
• More

Ms.Stamer also is celebrated for her decades of leadership and scholarship on employee benefits and related concerns.

• Credentials: Fellow, American College of Employee Benefits Counsel; Board Certified in Labor and Employment Law, Texas Board of Legal Specialization; Martindale-Hubbell AV Preeminent (top 1%); LexisNexis “Legal Leader” and “Top Rated Lawyer”; D Magazine “Best Lawyer.”
• Bar & Industry Leadership: American Bar Association — TIPS Medicine & Law Committee Chair, SCOPE Committee, and past Employee Benefits and Worker’s Compensation Committees Vice Chair; RPTE Employee Benefits Group past Chair, incoming Plan Terminations and Transactions Commitee VIce Chair, and former Chair of Welfare Benefit, Defined Contribution and Fiduciary Responsibilty Committees; Joint Committee on Employee Benefits HHS Agency Meeting Scribe and past Council Representative and Programs Committee Chair; International Employment Committee Co-Chair; Health Law Section Managed Care and Insurance Interest Group Chair. American College of Employee Benefits Counsel Sponsorship Committee. Southwest Benefits Association past Board Member and Program Chair; Dallas Bar Association Employee Benefits & Executive Compensation Committee past Chair; past WEB National Board and Dallas Chapter Chair; SHRM past National Consultants Board and Region IV Chair; IRS Gulf States TEGE Council EO Coordinator.
• Thought Leadership: Frequent author and speaker on employee benefits, executive compensation, and ERISA compliance for Bloomberg/BNA, Employee Benefit News, the American Bar Association, the American Health Lawyers Association, the American Compensation Association, SHRM, the Southwest Benefits Association, the IRS TEGE Council, and many others. Past professor of Employee Benefits and Executive Compensation, University of Dallas Graduate School of Business Finance Program; program chair, faculty member, and author for numerous other organizations and programs.
• Public Policy: Former lead advisor to the Government of Bolivia on its Social Security Pension Privatization Project; sustained legislative and regulatory advocacy on pension, retirement, and health benefit policy, including testimony to Congress, service on the EBSA Employer Advisory Council, and recurring engagement with the DOL, IRS/Treasury, SEC, DOJ, HHS, and state attorney general, insurance, labor, health, and tax agencies.

As an inherent component of her decades of work, “Cindy” is sought out by clients, industry leaders, legislators, regulators, and others for her knowledge and insights on the management and mitigation of cybercrime, identity theft, privacy and data security, and other data, technology and other risks and opportunities arising from human resources, employee benefit, and other workforce; health care; insurance; financial services; data and technology and other legal and operational risk management and compliance concerns. She has worked extensively with health care, managed care and insurance, employee benefits, human resources, financial services, data and technology, and other private and public sector organizations, their leaders, data, technology, and other service providers and other business partners for more than 30 years to promote the legal defensibility of their design, use, protection and management of electronic health, telemedicine and other patient record; medical, insurance, lending and other billing; eligibility, membership, claims, provider, broker and other insurance; payroll and other human resources; investor; financial; research; training; production; quality; marketing; credentialing; and many other data sets; processes and records and operations management systems; Artificial Intelligence and other information systems; and workforce, contracting, security, crisis preparedness and response, breach detection and response, and other related processes, technologies, policies and practices to promote legal and operational compliance and prevent, mitigate, respond to, and resolve cybersecurity and other threats to their data, systems and other operations arising from internal and external theft of trade secrets and industrial espionage; hacking, malware, ransomware, data breaches, and other cybersecurity events; natural disaster; and other data, technology, privacy and other events arising in the course of their operations.

A popular lecturer, Cindy has authored hundreds of highly regarded works on cybersecurity, privacy and related matters including Identity Theft and Cybercrime Risks, Liabilities and Prevention: Risks & Exposures Relating to HR and Employee Benefits (WEB); Privacy Invasions of Medical Care-An Emerging Perspective, ERISA LITIGATION MANUAL (BNA) (2003-2006); When Your Employee’s Private Life Becomes Your Business (1999-2020); Hard Lessons on Protecting Health Data, INSURANCETHOUGHTLEADERSHIP.COM (May 4, 2017); Cybercrime and Identity Theft: Health Information Security Beyond HIPAA, ABA HEALTH ESOURCE (May 2005); Health Care Providers Face Continuing Personal Identity Theft Exposures, MD News (May 2005); Chapter 8: Other Liability-Tort and Regulatory, E-Health Business And Transactional Law (ABA Health Law Section/BNA (2009) and many others.

Scribe leading the American Bar Association (“ABA”) Joint Committee on Employee Benefits (“JCEB”) annual Technical Session Agency Meeting with the Department of Health and Human Services Office of Civil Rights, Cindy also provides leadership on these and other concerns by serving in the leadership of many professional, trade, community and other organizations including as current American Bar Association (ABA) Tort Trial and Insurance Practice Section Medicine and Law Committee, ABA International Section International Life Sciences and Health Committee Chair and International Employment Law Committee Vice Chair; ABA Intellectual Property Section Law Practice Management Chair; former ABA RPTE Employee Benefits & Other Compensation Group Chair and current Welfare Benefit Committee Chair, ABA Intellectual Property Section Law Practice Management Committee Chair, and former ABA Health Law Section Managed Care & Insurance Interest Group Chair and E-Health and Technology Interest Group Vice Chair, she also has served as an editorial advisory board member and faculty member of multitude of publications and programs on these and other related topics.

To contact Ms. Stamer about her availability to provide legal services or training or for additional information about Ms. Stamer, her experience, involvements, see www.CynthiaStamer.com or contact her via e-mail to [email protected]. ©2024 Cynthia Marcotte Stamer.

Cynthia Marcotte Stamer helps health care providers and payers, health technology companies, managed care and other health industry clients to manage legal risks and improve operational effectiveness through her work as an attorney for health industry clients, her leadership in health industry organizations, her regulatory and legislative advocacy and her experience as a committed health care advocate.

For more than 35 years, Ms. Stamer has advised health care providers, managed care, health information technology and other health industry service providers, domestic and foreign governments and others about a diverse range of regulatory, staffing, compliance, tax, privacy, contracting, investigations, public policy and other operational concerns.

Known for her high accessibility and ability to respond to triage crisis issues and other emergent legal and business concerns, Ms. Stamer acts as outside operations and special counsel to a broad range of health care providers, payers and other health industry clients. She provides real-time, strategic regulatory and compliance, risk management, employment and other services contracting and management, credentialing and employment, medical staff and credentialing, corporate, accreditation,  reimbursement, transactional and operational advice to physicians; hospitals and health care systems, durable medical equipment, pharma, and other health care providers; management services organizations, managed care and insurance organizations; health plans; health and managed care consultants and outsourcers, health information technology providers; and other health industry clients.  She assists them to respond to regulatory and enforcement changes. She also represents these and other health industry clients before federal and state regulators and lawmakers.  She also regularly conducts training for health and managed care industry clients on a wide range of topics.

Health care is a people business.  Board Certified in Labor & Employment Law by the Texas Board of Specialization, Ms. Stamer has extensive experience advising, assisting and defending public and private hospitals and hospital systems, physician organizations, clinics, durable medical equipment and pharmaceutical companies, public health agencies, public schools and other health industry clients about peer review, credentialing and other physician relations; labor and employment, outsourcing and other contracted services, employee benefits and related matters.  Her work includes on demand risk management advise; strategic consultation about reengineering, risk management, training and compliance; the drafting, review, interpretation, administration, enforcement and defense of employment and other services agreements, medical staff bylaws, credentialing and compliance and other policies, procedures and controls; investigations and discipline; compensation and employee benefit design, compliance, administration and enforcement; and other matters.

Ms. Stamer’s background also includes a lengthy resume of advising health care providers, managed care organizations and others on managed care contracting, administration, and compliance matters. As a continuous part of this work, Ms. Stamer works extensively with payers and providers on federal and state prompt pay, ERISA, Medicare, Medicaid, and other payment and reimbursement regulations. She also assists health care providers, Medicare and Medicaid Advantage, and other health industry clients to legally maximize reimbursement under public and private health benefit programs while minimizing false claim and other regulatory exposures. She also regularly works with health industry clients on credentialing; licensing; human resources and staffing; outsourcing and referral; contracting; patient empowerment and consumer directed health care; reimbursement and claims including prompt pay, No Surprises Act and other out-of-network reimbursement; delegation; utilization management and quality; health care and health program product, process and technology design and administration; patient, provider, payer and beneficiary relations; privacy and security; investigations; internal controls; and other legal, management and operational matters.   She also advises health industry clients about federal and state health care fraud and abuse, referral, prompt pay and other regulations and policy matters. As effective management of internal and external staff and other human resources are critical to the effective conduct of many of these activities by health industry clients, Ms. Stamer maintains an in-depth knowledge and pragmatic understanding of these legal complexities and is Board Certified in Labor and Employment Law by the Texas Board of Legal Specialization.

Recognized in International Who's Who of Professionals and bearing a Martindale Hubble AV-rating, Ms. Stamer also is recognized for her leadership and scholarship in health industry matters. Current Chair of the American Bar Association (ABA) Tort Trial and Insurance Section Medicine and Law Committee and Vice Chair of its Life, Health and Disability Committee, she also previously served as Chair of the ABA International Section International Life Sciences and Health Committee, the ABA Health Law Section Managed Care & Insurance Interest Group and Vice Chair of its E-Health and Technology and Risk Management Committees; Exempt Organizations Vice-Coordinator of the Gulf States TEGE Council; Vice-President of the North Texas Health Care Compliance Professional Association; President of the Coalition for Patient Empowerment (COPE) and in many other leadership roles. While serving as a board member and President of the Alliance for Healthcare Excellence, Ms. Stamer conceived and founded its Patient Empowerment and Health Care Heroes Programs.  She also previously served on the Board of Directors and as Board Compliance Committee Chair of the National Kidney Foundation of North Texas; Chairman of the Board and President of an early childhood intervention agency; on the United Way Long Term Planning Committee; on the Dallas World Affairs Council Board and a host of other health industry, civic and professional organizations.

Ms. Stamer also is a widely recognized for her thoughtleadership on health care and health care technology concerns.  Her insights on health care, health insurance, human resources and related matters have been quoted in The Wall Street Journal, Business Insurance, the Dallas Morning News, Managed Healthcare, Health Leaders, Aging Magazine, MDNews and various other national and local publications.

A widely published author and highly sought-after speaker recognized for her ability to share complex ideas in practical, easy to understand and apply terms, Ms. Stamer is the author of a multitude of articles, papers, presentations, newsletters, programs, and workshops on managed care and other health industry matters for HCCA, TSHRAAE, the Institute of Internal Auditors, the American Bar Association, the American Health Lawyers Association, various medical societies and a multitude of other organizations.   Her highly regarded publications regularly appear in issues of the American Bar Association, Aspen Publishers, the American Health Lawyers Association, the Bureau of National Affairs, and a host of other publications.

Ms. Stamer regularly conducts board, leadership, and compliance training for a broad range of health industry and other organizations including the Harris County Medical Society, the Medical Group Management Association, Decision Health, the Association of State and Territorial Health Care Organizations, the American Bar Association Health Law Section, the American Health Lawyers Association, and others.   She also annually serves as a planning committee member and faculty member of numerous health and managed care and other programs and conferences.