Cynthia B. Hutto is a partner in the Charleston Office of Nelson Mullins Riley & Scarborough LLP.  The Charleston office is located at 151 Meeting Street, Suite 600, Charleston, South Carolina 29401.  Her telephone number is (843) 720-4307, and her e-mail address is cindy.hutto@nelsonmullins.com.

Ms. Hutto practices in the areas of health care and administrative law with an emphasis on hospital-physician relationships and patient privacy compliance for health care providers.  She has represented hospitals, physician hospital organizations, long term care facilities, and independent practice associations regarding medical staff and credentialing matters.  She routinely advises such entities and their medical executive and credentialing committees on the development and enforcement of disruptive physician policies; the requirements and procedures for corrective action (including fair hearing procedures and summary suspensions); the scope of the peer review privilege under state law; leadership participation in sentinel event response and policy development; standards for review of initial and reappointment applications; and the immunity protections, reporting responsibilities and fair hearing requirements of the Health Care Quality Improvement Act.  Ms. Hutto has prepared medical staff bylaws for the merger of two hospital facilities, prepared medical staff bylaws for a new hospital facility and assisted in the ongoing process of medical bylaws amendments for hospitals to comply with periodic changes in the Joint Commission standards and compliance program objectives.

Ms. Hutto also advises health care clients regarding issues involving patient privacy under the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996 ("HIPAA") and state privacy laws and regulations, provider contracting and compliance program initiatives, the development of privacy policies and procedures to comply with HIPAA and state law privacy protections, medical records disclosure issues, information systems, and state and federal referral legislation (including the Medicare and Medicaid Anti-Kickback Statute and Stark).

Ms. Hutto has been a speaker for the American Health Lawyers Association on sentinel event issues and the South Carolina Bar's Health Law Committee on physician referral issues.  She has also provided medical staff education programs on federal kickback and referral laws, compliance program development, Emergency Medical Treatment and Active Labor Act issues, National Practitioner Data Bank reporting requirements and medical staff liability issues related to harassment and other disruptive physician behavior.

Ms. Hutto has also provided education programs on various aspects of HIPAA compliance to the South Carolina Medical Association, Medical Education Development Services, the Association of South Carolina Oncology Managers, the South Carolina Association of Non Profit Homes for the Aging and the South Carolina Association of Orthopaedic Executives.  She has also been a speaker for the American Health Lawyers Association on sentinel event issues and the South Carolina Bar's Health Law Committee on physician referral issues.  In addition, Ms. Hutto recently collaborated on a chapter of the recently published Fourth Edition of The Fundamentals of Health Law entitled "Medicare: Overview, Program Administration, Reimbursement, Eligibility, Coverage, Certification, Payment, Assignment & Reassignment, Appeals."

She received her J.D. from the University of South Carolina School of Law in 1992 and her B.A. from the University of South Carolina in 1981.  In law school, Ms. Hutto was a research editor of the Real, Property, Probate and Trust Journal. She won the American Jurisprudence Award for Civil Procedure I and II. Ms. Hutto was the Outstanding Women's Law Graduate. She also was a member of Order of the Coif, Order of Wig and Robe, and John Belton O'Neall Inn of Court. Ms. Hutto is a past chair of the Health Law Section of the South Carolina Bar, and a member of the American Bar Association, the South Carolina Women's Law Association, the American Health Lawyers Association and the Charleston County Bar.  She is also listed in the 2008, 2009, 2010, 2011 and 2012 Editions of Best Lawyers in America in the specialty of Health Care Law.