Bio
Khaled John Klele is a Partner in the Firm’s Healthcare and Commercial Litigation Groups.
He has a philosophy of fully understanding each matter to better advise his clients. He provides counsel to a variety of providers, including ambulatory surgery centers, hospitals, laboratories, imaging centers, addiction centers, skilled nursing facilities, urgent care centers, and pharmacies.
Khaled has been with Riker Danzig since securing a summer associate position in 1999, joining the Firm as an attorney in 2000 after graduating law school.
Khaled’s detailed approach has assisted many of his clients, especially in regulatory compliance and healthcare litigation. He routinely services his healthcare provider and pharmacy clients in a variety of areas, including:
- Negotiating provider agreements and addressing credentialing issues; for example, Khaled assisted a client in becoming one of the first urgent care centers to become credentialed by a major health insurer payor as an urgent care center, and even assisted in developing certain of the criteria for the credentialing process
- Drafting and negotiating employment agreements or independent contractor agreements and addressing fair market value issues; Khaled also routinely represents healthcare providers in non-compete actions
- Creating and advising management services organization: Khaled advises a variety of MSOs on compliance issues including the corporate practice of medicine and management fee issues
- Ensuring State and federal healthcare regulatory compliance, including HIPAA and telemedicine: During the COVID-19 pandemic, Khaled drafted a telehealth and telemedicine guidance document outlining the changes to the rules and regulations before and after the start of the pandemic for a major medical malpractice carrier; he also assisted a multi-room licensed ambulatory surgery center in implementing a joint replacement robotics program in New Jersey
- Conducting medical billing audits and litigation, hospital audits, payor audits, Medicare and/or Medicaid audits, Medicare appeals, and other healthcare reimbursement issues including ERISA and out-of-network claims and reimbursements; Khaled successfully represented an out-of-network multi-room licensed surgery center in a class action lawsuit against several payors
- Representing physicians and other healthcare professionals before their respective boards for investigations, fair hearings, and disciplinary actions, as well as other licensing matters; for example, Khaled successfully assisted a client in petitioning the Board of Dentistry to consider a Dental Assistant as a “closely allied healthcare professional” so that she could form a corporate partnership with a licensed dentist
- Addressing federal and State fraud and abuse issues including anti-kickback and Stark Law Compliance, self-referral issues, Federal False Claims Act, New Jersey Insurance Fraud Act claims, and healthcare qui tam actions; Khaled is routinely called on by clients to analyze prospective business structures and arrangements for compliance issues
- Representing clients in mergers and purchases/sales of medical practices and facilities, including the purchase, sale, transfer or relocation of licensed facilities and forming multi-specialty groups
- Conducting pharmacy audits, PBM audits and terminations, pharmacy network access issues, pharmacy licensing and change of ownership issues, pharmacy coupons, copayment assistance programs, and pre-printed prescription pads
Khaled created and is a frequent contributor to Riker Danzig’s Healthcare Law blog, “The Juris Doctor Report.”
Khaled has served as a member of the Supreme Court District XB Ethics Committee.
Bar Admissions
New Jersey
United States District Court, District of New Jersey
New York
United States District Court, Southern District of New York
United States Court of Appeals, Third Circuit
Pennsylvania
Education
University of Virginia School of Law, J.D., 2000
Rutgers University, B.S., Phi Beta Kappa, Highest Honors, 1996
Professional Activities
Commerce & Industry Association's (CIANJ) healthcare Steering Committee
Healthcare Editorial Board for Law360
Vice-Chair, Editorial Board of the American Bar Association’s Health Lawyer publication, September 2021
Legislative Committee of the New Jersey State Bar Association’s Health Law Section, November 2020
ABA Health Law Section
American Health Law Association
Medical Group Management Association
New Jersey Bar Association – Health Law Section
Representative Experience
In terms of his healthcare related litigation, the below are some of his representative cases:
- Represented a leading provider of addiction services in connection with an investigation by the New Jersey Department of Health regarding an allegation of unnecessary lab testing. Khaled intervened on behalf of the provider and resolved the matter favorably.
- Defended skilled nursing homes in professional negligence matters throughout New York and New Jersey.
- Represented the Newark Public School District in dissolving a temporary restraining order that prevented the School District from switching its prescription benefit provider. The switch was opposed by one of the unions, and the Fund that oversaw the prescription benefits was evenly deadlocked between School District and Union Trustees. After the restraining order was dissolved, Khaled successfully argued that the Fund, which was created approximately 40 years ago, was ultra vires and had to be dissolved. After the Court held that the Fund was ultra vires, the parties settled, the Fund was dissolved, and the School District switched prescription benefit providers.
- Defended a medical billing company in a professional negligence matter where an out-of-network provider alleged that the client failed to bill or inappropriately billed for medical services. After targeted discovery, Khaled successfully reduced the number of claims at issue from several hundred to less than 50 claims. The parties eventually settled favorably to the client.
- Successfully represented Hackensack University Medical Center in a matter seeking to enforce confidentiality provisions against two of its former executives. After winning several discovery motions, our adversary settled on terms favorable to the client, including an extension of the former employees’ non-competes by another two years.
- In terms of commercial litigation, Khaled has been involved in all phases of complex commercial litigation, successfully trying and arbitrating cases in state and federal courts at both the trial and appellate levels. He has litigated cases in New Jersey, New York, and Pennsylvania. He has broad experience in litigation and handles matters in various areas of the law, including products liability, consumer fraud, construction, contract disputes, partnership disputes, and non-compete and trade secrets litigation.
Some of his representative clients and cases are as follows:
- Represents Carfax in consumer fraud and other tort related cases. Khaled has successfully defended Carfax over the years in a number of matters including Boos v. Carfax, Inc., 2013 WL 556694 (App. Div. 2013).
- Defends companies, including John Guest USA, Inc., in product liability matters.
- Represents Johnson & Johnson and a number of its affiliates in non-compete matters and has successfully obtained restraints against former employees and competitors. In one matter, Khaled succeeded in obtaining restraints against a former employee even though he did not have a non-compete agreement, after conducting a forensic review of his computer and discovering that he transferred confidential information to his personal email days before he resigned. In another instance, Khaled succeeded in obtaining restraints against a competitor and several sales representatives who resigned at the same time based on raiding. Within days, Khaled had an application for temporary restraints filed with the Court after conducting an investigation and forensic review of the employees’ computers and learning that one of the employees was working for the competitor while still employed by the J&J affiliate and was using his private and J&J work email accounts to solicit other J&J employees.
- Represented a regional bus company and its owner in an ownership dispute. The case broke in favor of Khaled’s clients after he succeeded, over the objections of the adversary, in subpoenaing a third party for transcripts of tape recordings between the adversary and several third parties that revealed numerous admissions regarding the ownership issue. Thereafter, the matter settled favorably for his clients.
- Represented PSE&G in a construction dispute related to an approximately $100 million dollar construction project regarding the addition of Selective Catalytic Reduction systems (“SCRs”) to its coal fired plant. During the litigation, Khaled learned the technology associated with SCRs, and was successful in getting the adversary’s expert, who was the leading expert in the world regarding SCRs, to admit to a defect in the SCRs’ duct burners. At the same time, Khaled successfully managed over 20 lien claim litigations that resulted from the project.
Rankings & Recognitions
Khaled has been honored as an ROI-NJ Influencer in the Healthcare Sector for 2022.
He has been honored by Benchmark Litigation in its 2021 edition, by inclusion on its list of “Future Stars.”
Khaled was selected as a “New Leader of the Bar” in 2012 by the New Jersey Law Journal. A high honor, the Law Journal selects for this recognition attorneys in their second decade of practice whose achievements in the workplace and public service involvement distinguish them from their peers.
See Awards and Honors Methodology.
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Publications
“Navigating COVID-19’s Impact: Advice for healthcare Clients,” Commerce Magazine’s March 2021 edition
“New Jersey ASCs can now use antigen tests in COVID-19 screening,” Becker’s healthcare, October 2020
“Financial Impact of COVID on healthcare Clients,” Commerce Magazine’s October 2020 edition
“New Jersey tweaks COVID-19 testing rules for ASCs — 4 things to know,” Becker’s healthcare, August 2020
“The Path to Successful Utilization of Alternative Payment Models,” co-author, Featured Article in the American Bar Association’s Health Lawyer’s June 2020 edition
“Best Practices for Healthcare Providers,” Commerce Magazine’s October 2019 edition
