Profile
Vickie B. Ahlers represents health care clients in matters involving state and federal health care regulation, contracting issues, HIPAA, medical staff issues, and risk management. Vickie also focuses her practice on data privacy and governance for businesses across all industry sectors. She counsels clients of all sizes, ranging from small critical access hospitals to Fortune 20 companies on data management, contracting, and governance. She has handled hundreds of data breach analyses and response efforts from initial incident response to regulatory enforcement defense.
Vickie is the Chair of the Firm’s Health Care section and leads the firm’s Privacy & Data Protection group. She has spoken to numerous industry groups such as the American Hospital Association and the Health Care Compliance Association on the topic of privacy and security for healthcare providers, insurers and employers. She has been listed in the top band of Chambers USA, America’s Leading Lawyers for Business (© 2013). Since 2007, Vickie has been selected by her peers for inclusion in The Best Lawyers in America® in the field of Health Care Law and was named “Lawyer of the Year” by Best Lawyers® in 2013, 2020 and 2024 for Omaha Healthcare.
Areas of Practice
Education
- Southern Illinois University School of Law, J.D., 1998
- University of Nebraska at Kearney, B.A., English, 1994
Bar & Court Admissions
- Iowa, 2005
- Nebraska, 1998
- Wisconsin, 2019
Professional & Civic Affiliations
- Make-A-Wish Nebraska, Board Member
- Nebraska Organ and Tissue Donor Coalition Board of Directors, Past Chairperson
- American Health Lawyers Association, Health Information Technology Leadership Committee Practice Group, Past Member
- Nebraska Chapter of Healthcare Financial Management Association, Member and Past President
- Iowa Society of Healthcare Attorneys, Member and Past President
- Latino Center of the Midlands Board of Directors, Past President
- Nebraska Aids Project Board of Directors
- Leadership Omaha (Class 26)
- Wellness Council of the Midlands Board of Directors, Past President
Selected Practice Highlights
- Representing Fortune 20 company and numerous other clients in Office for Civil Rights investigations following data breach
- Assisting client through a HIPAA Performance Audit in the pilot phase of Performance Audits conducted by KPMG on behalf of the Office for Civil Rights (OCR)
- Developing compliant policies and processes for privacy and security and training and consultation for workforce and Medical Staff on HIPAA compliance
- Assisting large national health care providers and employers through multi-state breach notification under various state laws
- Representing clients in developing medical staff bylaws, rules and regulations and policies
- Successfully obtaining FDA 510(k) clearance on behalf of client for three medical devices
- Advising clients with respect to physician recruitment and employment and other hospital-physician relationship issues
- Co-authoring four compliance manuals for health care providers and health plans on compliance with HIPAA and HITECH
Recent Speaking Engagements
- “How to Attract, Retain, And Equip Board Members to Deal with High Stakes Issues,” Nebraska Hospital Association Annual Convention, October 2024
