George C. Demos

Chief Operating Officer

George Demos is a partner in O'Melveny's Los Angeles office and is the founder of our Health Care and Life Sciences practice. He is also the Firm's Chief Operating Officer. He works with institutional clients in health care litigation, transactional and complex regulatory matters. He has been recognized annually as a top health care lawyer by The Best Lawyers in America since 2006.

George has extensive experience in federal and state anti-kickback and self-referral laws and the federal False Claims Act, as well as cost reporting and other reimbursement issues. He also has experience in handling physician, hospital and other provider disputes and controversies.

Illustrative Professional Experience

• Represented WellPoint Health Networks Inc., in a series of nationwide RICO class actions that were consolidated into a multi-district litigation proceeding before the US District Court for the Southern District of Florida
• Represented managed care organizations in class actions by IPAs and medical groups alleging price-fixing violations related to fee schedules
• Represented an integrated delivery system in one of the largest joint criminal/civil health care fraud investigations by the US Department of Justice involving Medicare and Medicaid cost reporting practices
• Represented a national managed care organization in the disposition of its integrated delivery system, which included a health maintenance organization, a hospital delivery system, and a physician clinic health care system
• Represented CCMP Capital Advisors and Goldman Sachs Capital Partners in their attempted US$6.4 billion acquisition of Triad Hospitals, Inc., the operator of 54 hospitals and 13 ambulatory surgery centers in 17 states
• Represented Alvarado Hospital Medical Center in U.S. v. Tenet Healthsystem Hospitals, Inc., Alvarado Hospital Medical Center, and Barry Weinbaum, an eleven-month criminal jury trial in which we successfully defended against charges alleging violations of the federal anti-kickback statute (judge declared mistrial on ground that jury was hopelessly deadlocked after failing to reach a verdict because of government's failure of proof; charges were thereafter dismissed)
• Representing a hospital in an internal investigation concerning a physician joint venture, including recommending and implementing certain corrective action measures 
• Representing pharmaceutical manufacturer in six separate Attorneys General lawsuits alleging violations under state, federal, and consumer protection statutes related to the sale and marketing of prescription drugs
• Represented Knox-Keene entity in state court action alleging violation of state fee splitting and anti-kickback statute
• Represented an acute care hospital investment fund in acquiring distressed hospitals
• Represented a private equity fund in acquiring a physician staffing company out of bankruptcy
• Represented a medical device manufacturer and nutritional product supplier in a multistate Medicaid investigation regarding the client's product pricing practices, and providing day-to-day advice to the client regarding product pricing issues in light of state Medicaid compliance issues
• Represented a governmental health care agency in a Department of Justice civil investigation of alleged over-billing
• Represented a hospital in an investigation involving TRICARE/Champus billing issues
• Represented a managed care organization in a county grand jury probe
• Represented a county medical health agency in a criminal investigation regarding Medicare billing issues
• Represented a managed care organization in a Department of Managed Health Care enforcement proceeding
• Represented a bank group in an asset sale of nursing home facilities in four states
• Represented a bank group in connection with enforcement actions against a specialized testing laboratory under the Clinical Laboratory Improvements Act of 1988

Professional Activities

Admitted to Practice, US District Court, Central, Northern, Eastern, and Southern Districts of California; US Court of Appeals, Ninth Circuit
Interim General Counsel, For a large, integrated delivery system comprised of a hospital, HMO, and physician clinic health care system
Member, American Health Lawyers Association; American Bar Association, Healthcare Law Section; California Society for Healthcare Attorneys; Health Care Compliance Association
Lecturer, Health Care Compliance Association; American Health Lawyers Association; International Business Forum; Institute for Applied Management and Law, Inc.; California Society for Healthcare Attorneys; Institute for International Research; Los Angeles County Bar Association
Languages, Conversational Greek and Spanish