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Health Care Policy and Government Affairs

Overview

Crowell & Moring's Health Care Policy and Government Affairs Practice enables clients to participate proactively in the critical and constantly changing legal, regulatory and legislative landscape of health care. Our team includes professionals who have played critical roles in the development and implementation of the Affordable Care Act (ACA) at the Department of Health & Human Services, worked for Congressional leaders affecting health care, managed in-house corporate federal and state health care government affairs, held leadership roles in government agencies affecting the health care industry, and worked on the development of international trade policy affecting health care. We assist clients with regulatory and legislative analysis, strategic planning, Congressional advocacy and achieving health care public policy goals.  

Critical forums in which we work include Congress, including key legislative committees of both the House and Senate, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS), the Food & Drug Administration (FDA), the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Office of Inspector General (HHS OIG), the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO), the Federal Trade Commission (FTC), the U.S. Department of Justice, the Internal Revenue Service (IRS), the National Association of Insurance Commissioners (NAIC), state insurance departments, state health insurance exchanges, the Office of Personnel Management (OPM), and the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative, the World Health Organization and the World Trade Organization.

Our team includes attorneys with public service experience in key government positions. These include, for example, service as:

  • Finance Director to U.S. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY)
  • Counsel to U.S. Senate Minority Leader Charles E. Schumer (D-NY)
  • Congressional Affairs Advisor to the HHS Office of the Inspector General 
  • Director of the Office of Technical Payment Policy at CMS, with key responsibility for policy development with regard to Accountable Care Organizations and implementation of the Stark law
  • Acting Director and Deputy Director of the USPTO as well as Acting and Deputy Undersecretary of Commerce for intellectual property
  • Associate Chief Counsel at the FDA
  • Counsel, Office of Personnel Management

Our practice includes regulatory and public policy counseling and analysis related to proposed and implemented statutes, regulations, and other guidance at the state and federal levels; effective advocacy and lobbying before Congress and Federal regulatory agencies, quasi-government bodies, and legislatures at the State and Federal Level to influence policy; relationship building and facilitation among stakeholders, HHS, legislatures, state-based marketplaces, departments of insurance, NAIC and foreign governments and international trade bodies; technical assistance on legislative and regulatory issues: legislative and regulatory drafting; and providing technical comment letters to regulatory bodies.

Insights

Client Alert | 24 min read | 01.25.23

President Biden Signs End-of-Year Legislation Including Telehealth, Medicare & Medicaid, Mental Health, Pandemic Preparedness, and Other Health Care Provisions

On December 29, President Joe Biden signed into law the Consolidated Appropriations Act, 2023 (P.L. 117-164) (the “Act”)—an approximately $1.7 trillion spending package, which consists of all 12 fiscal year (FY) 2023 appropriations bills and funds the federal government through September 30, 2023, provides additional assistance to Ukraine, and makes numerous health care policy changes.  ...

Representative Matters

  • Representing a national trade association in a successful effort to effect changes in NAIC proposed statutory accounting rules for the ACA § 9010 health insurer tax.
  • Working with a U.S. territory to engage with CMS to assist the territory in its efforts under the ACA to expand health care and health insurance coverage for its people.
  • Addressing the impact of the non-discrimination provisions of the ACA on coverage of expensive specialty drugs for patients with AIDS/HIV and chronic illnesses.
  • Advocating for a national health care professional association on federal legislative and enforcement policies reflected in the Stark law on physician referrals to health care providers in which they have a financial interest
  • Representing a health insurance plan serving Medicaid and Medicare populations on the applicability of the health insurance provider tax under the ACA.
  • Assessing the legislative and regulatory treatment of and policy options regarding narrow provider networks under the ACA and applicable state law.
  • Assisting a health care facility in maintaining its Medicare provider status in a high profile case.

Insights

Client Alert | 24 min read | 01.25.23

President Biden Signs End-of-Year Legislation Including Telehealth, Medicare & Medicaid, Mental Health, Pandemic Preparedness, and Other Health Care Provisions

On December 29, President Joe Biden signed into law the Consolidated Appropriations Act, 2023 (P.L. 117-164) (the “Act”)—an approximately $1.7 trillion spending package, which consists of all 12 fiscal year (FY) 2023 appropriations bills and funds the federal government through September 30, 2023, provides additional assistance to Ukraine, and makes numerous health care policy changes.  ...

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