Jim Purcell is a seasoned legal and healthcare professional with extensive experience in dispute resolution. A founding and managing partner of Partridge Snow & Hahn LLP, he later served as COO and CEO of Blue Cross & Blue Shield of Rhode Island from 2000 to 2012. Since then, he has worked as a solo arbitrator and mediator, specializing in complex healthcare and insurance disputes. A former member of the AAA’s Healthcare Dispute Resolution Rules Advisory Council, Jim brings particular expertise and enthusiasm to mediation.
With firsthand experience as a healthcare trial lawyer, a health plan CEO, and now a seasoned neutral, Jim brings deep insight to resolving healthcare and insurance disputes. We asked him how this unique perspective shapes his approach on the AAA Healthcare Panel. Here's what he said.
Q: Tell us about your background in healthcare law or the healthcare industry.
Jim: As a trial lawyer, I represented healthcare entities. I was COO and CEO of Blue Cross RI. I now mediate and arbitrate mostly healthcare and insurance disputes.
Q: What types of healthcare disputes do you typically handle as an arbitrator or mediator?
Jim: Payor/provider payment disputes; participating provider agreement disputes; dissolution of professional practices; reinsurance matters; effectiveness of amendments to par agreements; terminations of participation status disputes.
Q. What drew you to ADR work in the healthcare space?
Jim: It’s an area where I have unique training, experience and expertise; I like resolving complex issues.
Q. What do you value most about serving as a neutral on the AAA’s Healthcare Panel?
Jim: The mental and emotional challenges of providing parties with a thorough, fair, speedy, and expert resolution of their issues. And genuinely helping counsel prepare and present their cases without unpleasantness and surprises.
Q. What advice do you have for parties preparing for arbitration or mediation in complex healthcare disputes?
Jim: Keep your eye on getting the case to settlement. Think about how you could gain leverage for settlement through the limited discovery and your communications to opposing counsel. And choose your limited discovery well.