Kelly M. Hagemann

Partner
“Behavioral healthcare providers face pressure from all ends. My job is to help them sustain and grow their businesses so they can continue serving patients with grace and dignity.”

Kelly Hagemann helps behavioral healthcare providers navigate legal and operational pressures that threaten their ability to serve patients. She works with addiction treatment centers, mental health facilities, and other providers to stay compliant, protect licensure, secure reimbursement, and maintain continuity of care.

Drawing on deep litigation and regulatory experience, Kelly handles payer audits, licensing actions, and commercial disputes within the behavioral health industry. Her work also spans mental health parity enforcement, access-to-care litigation, and discriminatory zoning enforcement. Clients rely on her to mitigate risk proactively and respond strategically when issues escalate.

Outside the behavioral health space, Kelly is an accomplished commercial litigator with a background in complex disputes involving contracts, trade secrets, employment law, and class actions. She is often called upon when broader business concerns intersect with healthcare litigation—whether involving provider contracts, coverage denials, or administrative actions. Across all engagements, her focus remains on protecting operational continuity and reputational strength.

Associated Industries

Healthcare

Insurance

Representative Matters

  • Mental Health and Substance Abuse Treatment Facility Compliance: Developed policies and procedures for mental health and substance abuse providers relating to marketing, referrals, and payor relationships to ensure compliance with federal and state regulations.
  • Substance Abuse Treatment Litigation: Represented provider in action brought by major insurer alleging illegal kickbacks in exchange for the referral of specimens to toxicology laboratory. Obtained dismissal of action.
  • Substance Abuse Treatment Administrative Hearings: Represented multiple detoxification facilities in administrative actions brought by the California Department of Health Care Services seeking revocation of clients’ licenses.
  • Arbitration: Represented a large physician group against a national laboratory corporation alleging breach of contract, fraud, and regulatory violations. The corporation was contracted to establish and manage the clients’ in-house pathology laboratory, but failed to comply with the Clinical Laboratory Improvement Amendments (CLIA), Stark Law, the False Claims Act, the anti-markup rule, and California’s False Claims Act. Obtained a favorable result for client.
  • Special Investigations, Recoupment Requests, and Audits: Represented numerous providers in recoupment requests and audits from major payors. Settled several seven-figure demands, obtained reimbursements for clients on outstanding claims, and extracted clients from Special Investigations Unit status.
  • Reimbursement Dispute: Represented emergency medical transportation providers in litigation challenging Medi-Cal reimbursement rates. The Department of Health Care Services set clients’ reimbursement rates without complying with federal and state requirements, and without considering clients’ costs to provide those services.
  • Independent Physician Association Reimbursement Dispute: Represented a large group of emergency physicians in litigation against an Independent Physician Association (IPA) to recover payment for services at physicians’ usual and customary rates. The IPA wrongly withheld several hundreds of thousands of dollars refusing to pay usual and customary rates for Current Procedural Terminology (CPT) codes as billed. Obtained a favorable settlement on the clients’ behalf, including payment of past amounts due, and structured agreed-upon contract rates going forward.
  • Professional Malpractice: Represented an attorney who was sued for malpractice, fraud, negligence, and elder abuse following modifications he made to a decedent’s trust and pour-over will. The beneficiaries of testamentary documents challenged modifications and alleged a conspiracy between the client and another beneficiary. Obtained a complete defense judgment for the client following a lengthy bench trial. The court found that the client practiced competently, the fraud and elder abuse claims were completely unfounded, and there was no conspiracy.

Credentials

Bar & Court Admissions
  • California
  • Texas
  • U.S. District Court for the Northern, Central and Southern Districts of California
Professional Affiliations
  • American Health Law Association, Behavioral Health Practice Group
  • Orange County Bar Association (Health Care Law Section)
Community Involvement
  • California Lawyers for the Arts in Santa Monica
  • Public Law Center in Orange County
Education
  • Pepperdine University School of Law, J.D.
  • University of California, San Diego, B.A
Recognition
  • Ones to Watch, Best Lawyers (2023, 2024)
  • Woman in Law Honoree, Orange County Business Journal (2023, 2024)
  • Rising Star, Super Lawyers Magazine (2015)
  • Super Lawyer, Super Lawyers Magazine (2025)