Kathryn R. Gilchrist

Katie Gilchrist has been practicing law in Mississippi and throughout the southeast since completing law school in 1991, and is one of the founding partners of Gilchrist Donnell PLLC.  With a focus on healthcare regulatory advice and employment-related issues and litigation, Katie has handled a wide array of regulatory and legal issues for physicians, hospitals and other healthcare providers over the course of her legal career.

Today, Katie’s practice focuses on Medicare and Medicaid reimbursements and appeals issues, contracting matters, and HIPAA and fraud and abuse compliance work. She also maintains a significant State regulatory practice, regularly handling Certificate of Need and licensure issues before the Mississippi State Department of Health, and providing daily assistance to both the Insurance Department and the Division of Medicaid for the State of Mississippi. Katie’s client base includes acute care and specialty hospitals and hospital systems, physician practices of all sizes, health insurance providers, diagnostic imaging centers, home health rehab, and other types of healthcare providers.

Katie’s experience in representing employers began in 1991, and since then she has regularly been involved in all types of business and employment matters, from drafting employee policies, procedures and handbooks, to negotiating employment contracts and contractual disputes, to defending her clients against claims of discrimination of all kinds. Katie’s employment clients have ranged from single physician medical clinics to some of Mississippi’s largest employers in non-healthcare business and industry.

Some of Katie’s engagements over the years include:

• Serving as lead outside counsel to the Mississippi Insurance Department since implementation of the Affordable Care Act in 2010.
• Assisting hospitals and hospice providers, individual and group physician practices, diagnostic imaging centers, billing companies, and equipment vendors deal with regulatory matters encountered in the health care industry, including STARK, the Anti-Kickback Statute, HIPAA, and EMTALA.
• Handling appeals from Medicaid and Medicare overpayment audits in all realms of both Federal and State government.
• Successfully representing a large hospital system in obtaining Certificate of Need authority to establish only the second new acute care hospital to be opened in Mississippi since the CON laws took effect in the 1980’s.

Court Admissions

• Mississippi State Courts
• United States District Courts of Mississippi
• United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit

Professional Memberships / Affiliations

• American Health Lawyers Association
• Mississippi Bar Association
• Fifth Circuit Bar Association
• Mississippi Defense Lawyers Association
• Madison County Bar Association

Other Distinctions

• Awarded “Best Lawyers” Healthcare Lawyer of the Year in Jackson Mississippi, 2016
• Ranked in Top Ten of Mississippi Business Journal’s Leadership in Law, 2015
• Listed annually since 2011 as one of Midsouth’s “SuperLawyers” in Healthcare
• Listed annually since 2008 as one of Mississippi’s “Best Lawyers” in Healthcare
• Ranked in Mississippi Business Journal’s 50 Leading Business Women’s Top Ten in 2008
• Adjunct Professor and Skills Program Fellow at the University of Mississippi School of Law since 2006
• Annual speaker for “Mississippi Mental Health and the Law” program
• Presents regularly through the year on topics related to health reform and fraud and abuse compliance issues
• Served on Public Health Taskforce for American Health Lawyers Association
• Served as Chair of the Mississippi Bar Association’s Health Law Section