HEALTH & LIFE SCIENCES NEWS
HEALTH & LIFE SCIENCES NEWS
Exploring Critical Business and Legal Issues across the Healthcare and Life Sciences Industries
HEALTH & LIFE SCIENCES NEWS
Exploring Critical Business and Legal Issues across the Healthcare and Life Sciences Industries
Results for "5 Questions"
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Five Questions with a Health Lawyer: Nicholas Alarif

by | Feb 28, 2020 |

Nicholas Alarif
Office: Washington, DC
Years at Firm:  3

What is your favorite part about practicing healthcare law at McDermott? 

I hate to sound like a broken record, but the best part about practicing at McDermott is the innovative and collaborative culture. I have found that McDermott fosters a team-based approach to solving client issues. The opportunity to interact with experts in so many disciplines and sub-disciplines to achieve common goals for our clients has been fantastic. Further, I have found that my colleagues are open to new approaches to tackle client issues and are always happy to streamline internal processes. Innovation is not what you typically think of in a law firm environment, and McDermott’s embrace of change makes for an exciting and fun place to practice.

What is the biggest opportunity and greatest challenge facing clients in your area of focus today? 

The biggest opportunity and greatest challenge may actually be the same—a shifting regulatory landscape. For instance, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services and the Office of Inspector General recently published proposed revisions to the physician self-referral law (Stark Law) and the Anti-Kickback Statute (AKS) regulations, which, among other things, are attempting to foster transitions from fee-for-service medicine to value-based care. These proposed changes will potentially allow providers broader flexibility when engaging in financial relationships with a value-based goal. The proposed changes [...]

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Five Questions with a Health Lawyer: Matt Perreault

by | Feb 14, 2020 | ,

Matt Perreault
Office: Boston
Years at Firm:  2

What is your favorite part about practicing health care law at McDermott? 

As so many of my colleagues have expressed throughout this series, my favorite part of practicing healthcare law at McDermott is being a member of a collaborative and collegial team that is advising our diverse clients on their most critical and pressing issues.  Having spent much of my career in-house, I have experienced firsthand how McDermott’s approach to client service, anchored in humility, empathy and practicality, consistently delivers differentiated value and results for our clients.

What is the biggest opportunity and greatest challenge facing clients in your area of focus today? 

I believe that the transition to value-based arrangements will continue to accelerate. Collaborative Transformations will proliferate and present both tremendous opportunities for, and challenges to, traditional healthcare providers. Hospitals, health systems and other providers who embrace the challenges and opportunities presented by this paradigm shift will reap the benefits of their investments.  Those who resist this cultural change risk losing ground and market share to their competitors.

What kind of client work gets you most excited when it comes across your desk? 

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Five Questions with a Health Lawyer: Joe Parise

by | Jan 27, 2020 |

Joe Parise
Partner
Office: Boston
Years at Firm: 6

What is your favorite part about practicing healthcare law at McDermott? 

In short: the people. I have always had a cross-office practice, and as a result have been lucky enough to work with many different attorneys within the Health practice group. I am constantly impressed by the depth and breadth of experience that the group offers, as well as the creativity and thoughtful approach that our attorneys bring to tricky client issues. Being surrounded by talented attorneys (from the senior partner to the junior associate ranks) makes me want to “raise my game” and, I think, brings out the best in each of us.

In addition to the professional qualities, I am grateful for the fact that our attorneys bring a positive attitude each and every day, and create an enjoyable working environment. I have made some great personal connections over the years, and consider many of my colleagues to be good friends.

What is the biggest opportunity and greatest challenge facing clients in your area of focus today?

For the most part, I work with healthcare services providers and those that invest in such providers. I think the biggest opportunity for my clients relates to innovation in healthcare services delivery. Embracing new technologies (including those related to telehealth), optimizing the collection [...]

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Five Questions with a Health Lawyer: Larry Guess

by | Jan 17, 2020 | ,

Larry Guess
Partner
Office: Chicago
Years at the Firm: 6 years

What is your favorite part about practicing healthcare law at McDermott? 

My favorite part of practicing healthcare law at McDermott is the complexity of our client matters and working with my colleagues to get great results for our clients. The healthcare industry is constantly changing and innovating, and our clients engage us to help them adapt to these changes and maximize innovation in the space.

What is the biggest opportunity and greatest challenge facing clients in your area of focus today? 

The biggest opportunity facing our clients is the bullish investment perspective in the healthcare industry. Currently, there are buyers with a tremendous amount of capital to deploy and sellers looking to maximize current market conditions. The healthcare transactional climate is very dynamic and certain clients are willing to invest in more risky assets. While the payoff can be substantial, the speed and complexity of these transactions can be very challenging for clients.  McDermott’s healthcare group excels in delivering value to our clients by managing the speed of transactions while navigating complex regulatory regimes, enabling our clients to understand the risk associated with a particular investment and opportunities to maximize returns.

What kind of client work gets you most excited when it comes across your desk? 

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Five Questions with a Health Lawyer: Jeremy Earl

by | Dec 16, 2019 | ,

Jeremy Earl
Partner
Office: Washington, DC
Years at the Firm: 10

What is your favorite part about practicing healthcare law at McDermott?

My favorite part about practicing at McDermott is the challenging and constantly evolving nature of the work. Our clients put trust in us to advise them on their toughest legal questions and business challenges. I don’t take that trust lightly and it is exciting to come to work every day to meet and exceed the high expectations clients rightly have for us.

What is the biggest opportunity and greatest challenge facing clients in your area of focus today?

I represent managed care companies, which has traditionally meant health insurers and health maintenance organizations (HMOs). Due to legislative and competitive factors, healthcare financing and delivery is rapidly evolving and new models are being introduced to compete with traditional health insurers and HMOs. In 2012, Ezekiel Emanuel and Jeffrey Liebman boldly predicted in the New York Times that “[b]y 2020, the American health insurance industry will be extinct” and replaced by ACOs. That this has not happened is, at least in part, due to innovation by health insurers through such efforts as expanding value-based payment models.

At the same time, the traditional roles of providers and health insurers are blurring and providers and risk-bearing intermediaries are introducing innovative ways to finance healthcare delivery that [...]

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Five Questions with a Health Lawyer: Marshall E. Jackson, Jr.

by | Oct 10, 2019 | ,

Marshall E. Jackson, Jr.
Associate
Office: Washington, DC
Year at Firm: 4

What is your favorite part about practicing healthcare law at McDermott? 

My favorite part of practicing healthcare law at McDermott is working with clients that are out in front tackling very interesting and unique issues. The healthcare industry continues to evolve, and our clients are at the forefront. The changes in the industry have required clients to navigate areas of uncertainty, and our clients look to us to help them navigate that uncertainty. I have been blessed to sit shoulder to shoulder with a dynamic McDermott team helping our clients tackle new and unprecedented issues. No day is a dull day.

What is the biggest opportunity and greatest challenge facing clients in your area of focus today? 

Many of our clients face the challenge of balancing the need to deliver affordable, quality healthcare to people when and where they need it, while maximizing return on investment for their business within a hot healthcare market. While one side seems provider-centered and the other investor-centered, providers and investors alike grapple with this balancing act. In addressing this balance in the context of an ever-changing industry, our clients are seizing opportunities to embrace new ways to deliver healthcare, and forming strategic partnerships and collaborations to strike the balance. We are increasingly [...]

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Five Questions with a Health Lawyer: James A. Cannatti III

by | Sep 23, 2019 | ,

Name: James A. Cannatti III
Practice Focus Area: Healthcare Fraud & Abuse
Office: Washington, DC
Years at Firm: 1

What is your favorite part about practicing healthcare law at McDermott?

My favorite part of working in the McDermott Health practice, and at the Firm generally, is the team approach to advising clients. Each of us has unique subject matter knowledge and experience in different areas of law. Very often, our clients require advice that cuts across multiple areas and issues. By working together across different disciplines within the Firm and within the Health practice we can provide comprehensive advice and counsel to our clients – not just advice on one discrete issue – and approach things from a broader, strategic perspective to help meet their needs.

What is the biggest opportunity and greatest challenge facing clients in your area of focus today?

I work in the healthcare regulatory space, focusing on federal and state fraud and abuse issues. As the healthcare industry has evolved and focused more on delivering value, many fraud and abuse laws, which were written decades ago, have not kept pace and have been seen as barriers to innovation. Over the last few years regulators have signaled a willingness to rethink how some of the laws should be applied to novel arrangements and approaches to care. The evolving regulatory landscape and the potential removal of some [...]

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Five Questions with a Life Sciences Lawyer: Nora Klein

by | Aug 29, 2019 |

Nora Klein
Associate
Office: Chicago
Years at Firm: 2

What is an interesting fact about yourself that others may not know?

I played college golf at University of Illinois and in September 2019 I will be competing in the United States Women’s Mid-Amateur National Championship in Flagstaff Arizona. This will be the 33rd annually national championship for female golfers over 25 years old. The United States Golf Association runs 16 National Championships a year and to be able to play in one is every golfer’s dream. I feel so grateful to work at a place that quite literally supports me on and off the golf course.

What is the biggest opportunity and greatest challenge facing clients in your area of focus today?

The biggest challenge for our clients is also the biggest opportunity – how to grow in the revolutionary and highly profitable yet competitive life sciences industry, which is continuously expanding into new and often groundbreaking subsectors. Navigating these issues makes working at McDermott an enjoyable challenge. We not only need to assist our clients in finding innovative ways to grow their enterprises and remain compliant with healthcare rules and regulations, but also provide thoughtful, forward-looking solutions and plans that allow them to grow as these new subsectors emerge.

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Five Questions with a Health Policy Specialist: Rachel Stauffer of McDermott+Consulting

by | Aug 13, 2019 |

Rachel Stauffer
Director, McDermott+Consulting
Focus Area: Health Policy Advocacy and Lobbying
Years at McDermott+Consulting: 1.5

What is your favorite part about your health policy work at McDermott+Consulting? 

We have a deep bench of experts on a wide variety of health policy issues. This allows our team to be involved in so many different aspects of health policy – and that is my favorite part. There is no “normal” or “typical” day here. We work on different types of projects (advocacy, stakeholder engagement, strategic planning, for example) for different clients, including hospital systems, diagnostics, rural health, physician groups and others, in any given day. It keeps me on my toes and gives me an opportunity to learn new things every day.

What is the biggest opportunity and greatest challenge facing clients in your area of focus today? 

The biggest opportunity and greatest challenge facing clients today is the same: the unsettled health policy landscape. The politics around health policy are not as clear cut as they used to be, even just a few years ago. This puts clients in a unique position to shape and influence policy in ways that were not necessarily available a few years ago. On the other hand, there is little ability to predict what happens next. , It can be challenging to navigate and understand where to focus and how to deliver your message when the politics become murky but, that is [...]

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Five Questions with a Health Lawyer: Drew Elizabeth McCormick

by | Jul 30, 2019 |

Drew Elizabeth McCormick
Associate
Office: Boston
Years at Firm: 2

What is your favorite part about practicing health care law at McDermott? 

I get to work with world class lawyers on cutting edge issues and help our clients navigate the challenges of succeeding in a very dynamic, heavily regulated industry. I am constantly being challenged and learning new things, all while having the honor of helping guide our clients in transforming health care.

What is the biggest opportunity and greatest challenge facing clients in your area of focus today? 

Definitely the ability to take on risk and succeed in a value-based payment paradigm. We are seeing many shifts in the industry, which are largely being driven by fundamental changes in reimbursement structures away from fee for service. Compounding this, the regulatory framework is lagging behind in many regards, creating tensions and uncertainty that our clients lean on us to help them resolve.

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