Federal & State Health Policy

Our Focus

ArentFox Schiff is capable of fully serving its clients at the nexus of law and politics. Our attorneys and bipartisan policy advisers in the Health and Government Relations practices have decades of experience in private practice and public service. Our involvement in those areas has covered diverse fields of health policy, including Medicare, Medicaid, and private payer reimbursement, implementation of and modifications to the Affordable Care Act, annual federal appropriations for programs administered by the Department of Health and Human Services, prescription drug pricing and the 340B Drug Discount Program, telemedicine, and many areas of health care and biotechnology innovation.

Nationally we help our health care clients stay one step ahead of potential administrative and legislative changes. We advise them on how to achieve their policy objectives in Congress and the Executive Branch, as well as in several states. We are adept at developing strategies ranging from the successful introduction of legislation to organizing coalitions around proposed HHS regulations to orchestrating grassroots strategies to utilizing the judicial system to attain client goals. We advocate for our clients in the space where their business and government meet.

What We Do

In the area of federal and state health policy, we provide a variety of specific services to our clients:

• Monitoring, analyzing, and reporting on legislative and regulatory developments using our wide network of government contacts and public sources, including advising on changes to Medicare, Medicaid, health insurance coverage and access, and potential changes impacting the cost of health care.
• Engaging Members of Congress, Congressional staff, Executive Branch officials, and state officials, both directly and indirectly, to achieve target policy objectives.
• Identifying opportunities to participate in hearings, public policy briefings, policy events, and regulatory opportunities where our clients can provide expertise, including successfully suggesting topics for Congressional and state legislative hearings and caucus briefings.
• Drafting legislation, position papers, and testimony for Congressional and state legislative hearings.
• Preparing comments on proposed rules and regulations.
• Preparing witnesses for hearings.
• Representing clients in Congressional and Executive Branch investigations.
• Assisting in the preparation of federal grant, loan, and loan guarantee applications.

How We Help

• Helped an association, and its more than 50 community-based health care facilities, secure a two-year reauthorization and doubled funding for a graduate medical education program.
• Helped companies in the pharmaceutical industry, medical device manufacturers, and a medical professional society resolve Medicare and Medicaid coverage issues through both the legislative and regulatory processes, including “bet the company” lobbying initiatives to restore proposed Medicare reimbursement cuts.
• Advise leading health care providers on potential federal policy changes, including modifications to the Affordable Care Act and initiatives related to COVID-19, including the Provider Relief Fund and the Medicare Accelerated and Advanced Payment Program.
• Assist biotechnology and drug development companies with their strategies for FDA and reimbursement approvals.
• Assist health care providers in expanding access to telemedicine reimbursement.
• Secured substantially increased funding and extension of the Ryan White HIV/AIDS Treatment Extension Act for the largest HIV/AIDS coalition of metropolitan areas and community health clinics in the nation.
• Assisted a variety of clients in developing and implementing strategies to advocate for preservation and expansion of Medicaid funding, particularly for children.
• Organized the political and legislative response on behalf of clients to the threat of substantial proposed cuts to Medicaid in 2017.
• Helped a company and related medical societies secure a delay and renegotiation of a new Medicare Administrative Contractor-proposed Medicare reimbursement policy that would have decimated patient access to necessary medical procedures.
• Assisted in drafting and securing enactment of bipartisan legislation regarding expedited referrals to fetal medicine specialists for pregnant military personnel who may need fetal surgery to correct a birth defect.
• Managed efforts on behalf of health care clients in New York State to prevent a carveout of the 340B Drug Discount Program pharmacy benefit.
• Managing a “best practices in purchasing” initiative for a health care coalition that is helping hospitals and health care practices provide more affordable services through management of their supply chain.

Our Team

Together, our Health group lawyers and our Government Relations professionals have extensive experience serving in federal and state agencies and have worked in-house at health care providers, where they have handled an array of matters involving the resolution of regulatory and enforcement issues.

In addition, our bipartisan Government Relations professionals have experience at some of the most senior levels of the federal government. They have trusted relationships with policymakers in Washington, DC and state capitals across the country. Former Senator Byron Dorgan (D-ND) served for 30 years in Congress, including 18 years in the U.S. Senate, where he was a member of the Democratic Leadership and was very active on health policy. Former Congressman Phil English (R-PA) served 14 years on the House Ways and Means Committee, including as a member of the Health Subcommittee, where he was immersed in Medicare policy and tax issues.

This combination of Health law experts and professional lobbyists has enabled us to provide value for a variety of clients who retain our services for issues related to health care form and innovation, public and private payer reimbursement, federal and state compliance, biomedical research, federal programmatic funding, prescription drug pricing, and public health policy, to name a few.