Medical Practice Management Expert Witnesses: 9

William Santoro, MD is board certified in Addiction Medicine and board eligible in Family Medicine. He is the Chief of the Section of Addiction Medicine at Tower Health and was the Medical Director at the Reading Hospital & Medical Center detoxification/rehabilitation program. Dr. Santoro was also the Medical Director at a Methadone Treatment center  for 22 years, until 2021, where he is responsible for prescribing methadone to approximately 950 opiate dependent patients.

Dr. Santoro is the Addictionist on staff at The Reading Hospital & Medical Center within the Department of Family and Community Medicine. He is consulted by hospitalists to care for patients admitted to the hospital with addiction complicating their condition. Dr. Santoro runs an outpatient program treating over the 300 patients with buprenorphine (Suboxone/Sublocade) or Vivitrol maintenance. With an interest in Sports Medicine in 2001, he served as a volunteer physician for the U.S. Olympic Training Team in Lake Placid, New York.

Dr. Santoro has been deposed more than a dozen times in the past several years. He has testified in court numerous times on behalf of the plaintiff as well as for the defense. He has testified in Federal Court and been involved in cases concerning the pharmaceutical industry.

Areas of Expertise:

• All aspects of Addiction Medicine
• Medication Assisted Treatment (MAT)
  • Buprenorphine
  • Naltrexone
  • Methadone
• Dual Diagnosis Pain/Addiction

View Dr. Santoro's Consulting Profile.

David A.Sugar, MD, is a Board Certified Orthopaedic Surgeon. He has been in practice since 1997. Working as a general Orthopaedic Surgeon, he has treated an extremely wide array of Orthopaedic conditions and injuries.

Dr. Sugar has served as the Managing Partner in a group as large as 11 doctors and worked on the Surgical QI Committee ( currently serves as the Chairman) at the 35th largest hospital in the United States. Dr. Sugar is currently the principal surgeon at Sugar Orthopaedics where they provide surgical and non-surgical treatments for muscular and skeletal problems of all types.

Litigation Support - Dr Sugar has offered expert witness services for attorneys representing plaintiff and defendant for 20 years. His services include independent medical evaluations (IMEs), medical record review, thorough reporting, depositions, and trial testimony. Dr. Sugar's cases have a heavy emphasis on Fractures, Knee, Shoulder, Sports Medicine, and Pediatric Orthopaedics.

Areas of Expertise:

Elliott M. Stein, MD is a Geriatric Psychiatrist with over 40 years of experience caring for the elderly. Dr. Stein is Board Certified by the American Board of Psychiatry and Neurology in General Psychiatry (October, 1979), and in Geriatric Psychiatry (April, 1991; Re-Certified, December, 2001, and in April, 2011). He is licensed to practice in California and Florida. Dr. Stein was the Director of Psychiatry at the Jewish Home of San Francisco from 2010-2020, and the Medical Director of their Geriatric Psychiatry Hospital. He has treated older individuals, typically people who have complex combination of psychiatric and medical problems. Dr. Stein has been a Member of the Task Force on Testamentary Capacity and Undue Influence, for the International PsychoGeriatric Association.

Dr. Stein is a Clinical Professor in the Department of Psychiatry at the University of California, San Francisco, School of Medicine. He is a Distinguished Life Fellow of the American Psychiatric Association and a Distinguished Fellow of the American Association for Geriatric Psychiatry.

He is available to serve as an Expert Witness, do legal and forensic consultation, record review, and assessments concerning Psychiatric issues in older individuals. Dr. Stein offers his services to attorneys for both Plaintiff or Defense.

Areas of Expertise:

• Contested Wills and Trusts
• Testamentary Capacity, Undue Influence, Insane Delusions
• Geriatric Competence
• Dementia and Delirium, Alzheimer’s Disease
• Geriatric Psychiatry Evaluation and Treatment, Psychiatric Medication, Psychotherapeutic Issues
• Depression and Anxiety Disorders
• Relationship Problems between the Elderly and their Adult Children
• Aging and Mental Disorders
• Geriatric Psychiatry issues concerning Hospitals, Nursing Homes, Independent and Assisted Living Facilities
• Medicare Psychiatric Services Coding and Documentation

View Dr. Stein's Consulting Profile.

Reed Tinsley, CPA has provided consulting services to physicians and physician related entities and their legal counsel for more than 20 years. A sampling of his services to physicians include all aspects of physician practice management and economics, managed care contract review / negotiation, profit growth strategies, strategic planning, practice merger facilitation, physician contract reviews, physician buy-ins/buy-outs, regulatory compliance, and litigation support. Mr. Tinsley's litigation support specific services have included billing and collection reviews, medical practice or healthcare entity business valuation, lost profits analysis, covenant not to compete valuation, wrongful termination damage analysis, physician compensation disputes, and overhead allocation reviews. He has also been engaged as a court appointed Special Master and Receiver.

Areas of Expertise:

1. Practice and Healthcare Entity Valuation
2. Economic, Financial and Statistical Analysis Expert Witness
3. Physician Economic Disputes
4. Billing, Collection, Accounts Receivable Reviews
5. Managed Care Contract Reviews
6. Office Sharing and Physician Compensation Overhead Allocations
7. Physician Contract Disputes
8. Physician Compensation
9. Lost Profits and other Damage Analysis / Calculations
10. Physician Regulatory Compliane

Reed Tinsley is a Houston-based CPA, Certified Valuation Analyst, and healthcare consultant. His entire practice is devoted to providing tax, accounting, and healthcare consulting services to physicians and their attorneys. Reed has published numerous articles in national and regional publications and is frequently asked to speak on a variety of health care topics, including capitation, revenue enhancement, and integration strategies. His articles have been published in the Journal of Medical Practice Management, MGMA Journal, Hospital Physician, Texas Medicine Family Practice Journal, and Group Practice Journal. Mr. Tinsley also serves on the Editorial Panel of Consultants for the publication Managed Care Contract Negotiator.

Kimberly A. Baldwin-Stried-Reich, MBA, MJ, PBCI, CPHIMS, RHIA, CEDS, CPHQ, FAHIMA, has over 30 years of experience in a variety of healthcare settings. She specializes in Healthcare Informatics and HIPAA Compliance.

Ms. Reich holds a Master’s of Business (MBA) from the Lake Forest Graduate School of Management, a Master’s of Jurisprudence (MJ) in Health Law and Policy from the Loyola School of Law - Beazley Institute for Health Law and Policy in Chicago, IL and a Post Baccalaureate in Clinical Informatics (PBCI) from the Johns Hopkins School of Medicine Clinical Informatics Certificate Program.  She is the first Registered Health Information Administrator (RHIA) to complete the Johns Hopkins Division of Health Sciences Informatics Certificate Program and certification in EDiscovery. She is the lead author of the 2012 AHIMA publication E-Discovery and Electronic Records, a first of its kind healthcare e-discovery resources. 

Ms. Reich maintains active membership and participates in The Sedona Conference® for Privacy & Security & Electronic Records Production, American Health Information Management Association (AHIMA), American Medical Informatics (AMIA), Healthcare Compliance Association (HCCA), Society for Corporate Compliance & Ethics (SCCE), Society for Participatory Medicine (SPM), American Society for Healthcare Risk Management (ASHRM), Information Governance Initiative (IGI) and Greater Chicago Health Information Management Systems Society (GCCHIMSS).

Litigation Support - Ms. Reich is an expert witness for both defense and plaintiff legal counsel in matters involving HIPAA, e-discovery, and Electronic Health Records Systems fraud and abuse. Her services include thorough report preparation, depositions, and trial testimony. 

Areas of Expertise:

View Kimberly Reich's Consulting Profile.

Dental Malpractice & Dental Injury Expert Testimony - As of Jan 2022: Dr. Grossman has been deposed over 100 times; reviewed over 900 cases for both defense and plaintiff including peer review, accidents, and malpractice. 53% defense / 47% plaintiff. He has qualified in Superior Court over 50 times and have never been disqualified. At least 95% of my time is spent in patient care.

Dr. Grossman can be counted on to be ethical, competent, prepared and analytical as well as articulate and persuasive at depositions and court appearances. Published and have been written about in print, radio, and TV over 245 times. (http://www.expertwitness.dental/)

- click on Expert Testimony - Media Coverage / Write-ups)

Dr. Grossman holds two current professorships: UCLA School of Dentistry & NYU College of Dentistry, and is a former Professor at Western University College of Dental Medicine (2013-2018). Licensed in 42 states to opine on the standard of care, with specific licenses in California, Nevada, New Mexico and the Northeast as well as a Florida Expert Certification. Graduated NYU 1988; GPR Residency NYU 1989, Lieutenant, United States Navy 1989- 91; private practice Brentwood, CA since 1991 – serving over 13,000 patients on a fee-for-service basis.

Founder of the non-profit “Homeless Not Toothless” (www.homelessnottoothless.org), which has made it possible for over 100,000 homeless Veterans, women of domestic abuse and foster children to receive over $8 million in pro-bono dental care.

Member: American Academy of Cosmetic Orthodontics: 2013-present, ADA since 1991 and Peer Review Committee ADA 1995-2009, Delta Dental Peer Review 2000-present.

American Legion; Medical Disciplinary Committee Delta Dental; 15 years on the CA Dental Association Peer Review Committee; American Dental Association; Expert Witness, Veteran Administration QME examiner.

Expert Witness: Retained in Washington, D.C., and over 25 states as an expert in hospital administration who could render opinion after assessing medical records, hospital policies and procedures, medical staff bylaws and regulations, JCAHO standards, depositions, etc. Served as Expert Witness for Plaintiff and Defense. 

Consultant: Has assisted hospitals and health systems with accelerating their performance improvement efforts. Speaks, writes and consults on ethical issues in health care. 

Background Highlights:

• Consultant, Executive Vice President and Chief Operating Officer of the health system.
• Executive Director of two academic medical centers: Emory University Hospital in Atlanta, Georgia, Stanford University Hospital and Clinics at Stanford.
• Past chairman of the national advisory board for the University of Chicago’s Center for Clinical Medical Ethics.
• An author of over 175 publications, he has written articles for USA Today, Health Management Quarterly, Trustee, Health Progress, the Journal of Health Administration Education, Frontiers of Health Services Management, Bioethics Forum, Modern Healthcare, the Cambridge Quarterly of Healthcare Ethics, Stanford Medicine, and Healthcare Executive among others.
• Co-editor of Management Mistakes in Healthcare: Identification, Correction, and Prevention, published by Cambridge University Press in 2005.
• Co-editor of Managing Ethically: An Executive's Guide, published by Health Administration Press in 2001, and a second edition, Managing Healthcare Ethically: An Executive's Guide was published in 2010.
• Fellow of the American College of Healthcare Executives, a past member of its Leadership Advisory Committee, and a consultant on health care management ethics since 1994.
• Served as a Distinguished Visiting Scholar at Stanford University’s Center for Biomedical Ethics.
• Recipient of American Hospital Association's Award of Honor in 2009 and an Albert Schweitzer Leadership Award in 2012.
• Faculty appointments held at Harvard, UCLA, Stanford, Emory, the University of California, and Seton Hall University.
• Bachelor of Science, Master of Public Health, and Doctor of Public Health degrees are from the University of California, Berkeley.

Mark A. Smith, MD, MBA, FACS, FACHE, CPHQ, is an independent senior Healthcare Consultant and a Practicing Vascular Surgeon as a Clinical Assistant Professor of Surgery at the University of California, Irvine. Dr. Smith previously served as the Chief Medical Officer with Morrisey Associates Inc/ Morcare LLC for six years. He is a member of HG Healthcare Consultants LLC. Dr. Smith brings over 30 years of clinical practice and hospital management experiences to his work with physicians and hospitals across the United States. He is Board Certified in Vascular Surgery and is a Fellow of the American College of Surgeons, the American College of Healthcare Executives. He is a member of the American College of Physician Executives, the Society for Vascular Surgery and the Southern California Vascular Surgical Society. Litigation Support - Dr. Smith provides expert witness services to attorneys representing plaintiff and defendant. His decades of clinical practice as a surgeon and multiple roles in senior hospital administration to his work on peer review, credentialing, ED call, and other matters involving physicians and hospitals across the United States. He has testified several times in the past 5 years. Areas of Expertise:

View Dr. Smith's Consulting Profile.

Ms. Elizabeth D'Alesio has 30 years experience in ICU, including Medical, Surgical and Acute Care. She is ICU certified. She has managed the ICU and telemetry floor which includes bed monitoring. Ms. D'Alesio has also been involved with creating policy/procedure to meet JACHO requirements as well as ongoing recruiting of new ICU staff. She has served on the ethics committee for four years while in management.

Ms. D'Alesio is currently employed at the Reproductive Science Center of Milford and Milford Regional Medical Center where she administers Conscious Sedation, assists physicians with pacemakers, arteriograms and picc lines for septic patients.She currently holds certifications as and Adult Nurse Practitioner and Women's Health Nurse Practitioner,and has recently completed the Kaplan Life Care Planning Course.