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
5 Questions with a Health Lawyer
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Five Questions with a Health Lawyer: Larry Guess

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

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.

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

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 Health Lawyer: Drew Elizabeth McCormick

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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Five Questions with a Health Lawyer: Anisa Mohanty

Anisa Mohanty
Associate
Office: Washington, DC
Years at Firm: 3

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

I started out pre-med in college, but I quickly realized what excited me was the intersection between science, medicine, policy and law. Many of our clients are at the forefront of shaping policy in the life sciences space through their innovations, and the quality of our health care practice means we have the opportunity to partner with and support them in really exciting projects. I am grateful for the breadth and depth of knowledge and experience of my colleagues—it pushes me to be a better, smarter and savvier lawyer.

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

Because our clients are addressing some of the most complex challenges in healthcare and healthcare delivery, often there aren’t straightforward regulatory paradigms for their businesses. Our clients want to do the right thing, but that can be challenging because their regulators haven’t yet articulated how they will enforce the law as it applies to their services and solutions. Digital health is a great example of this and there’s a lot of opportunity to advocate for our clients so that regulators can take industry perspectives into account when finalizing regulations.

What kind of client work [...]

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Five Questions with a Health Lawyer: Erika Mayshar

Erika Mayshar
Partner
Office: Los Angeles
Years at Firm: 2

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

When I moved to McDermott, I was proud to be joining the nation’s top health care law practice,   but the industry rankings don’t tell the whole story. The breadth and depth of expertise are backed by a collegial and innovative culture that builds strong relationships among colleagues and clients. Health lawyers at McDermott truly enjoy their work and working with each other.

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

Industry disruption in health care is an ongoing reality for boards of directors and health system leadership. Being able to respond to moving-target opportunities is a challenge for leaders facing fast-paced regulatory change and economic pressure. The challenge is to determine what type of change makes sense for each organization – not to embrace disruption for the sake of staying current, but to seek opportunities that further the corporate mission and then implement change with meaningful stakeholder involvement. Tax-exempt nonprofit hospitals face additional hurdles, both cultural and legal, but are continually finding new ways to serve their communities and collaborate with for-profit businesses in creative ways.

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Five Questions with a Health Lawyer: Kate McDonald

Kate McDonald
Partner
Office: Washington, DC
Years at Firm: 6

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

The health care regulatory work we do is cutting edge. From the largest health care companies to the smallest start-ups, our clients tend to be highly sophisticated and they come to us with high stakes questions that have no easy answers. We help clients navigate a complex web of health care regulations to implement innovative business models or bend the cost curve. The work I do is intellectually challenging and I love partnering with my crazy smart colleagues to solve problems. This is what keeps me coming back to work day after day.

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

There is so much innovation occurring in the health care market today, and in particular in the managed care industry. Health insurers are partnering with an increasingly diverse set of business partners in an effort to provide higher quality care more efficiently, while actually keeping people healthier and improving their experience in the health care system – both of which inure to the benefit of both health insurers and consumers. While health care payors are at a critical intersection and have a unique opportunity to influence changes in the system, figuring out the best [...]

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Five Questions with a Health Lawyer: Megan Rooney

Megan Rooney
Partner
Office: Chicago
Years at Firm: 13

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

The team, the team, the team! It’s a pleasure to work with colleagues who have deep substantive expertise, prioritize client service, and are good human beings. As a healthcare M&A attorney, I am responsible for leading large teams of attorneys, including a variety of subspecialists, to drive efficient and effective outcomes and achieve business goals. I love knowing that, in nearly every instance, when an issue arises we have the specific expertise to handle it and there is no need to reinvent the wheel.

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

Our hospital and health system clients have a tremendous opportunity to improve the delivery of patient care, expand services provided to their communities and defend against the challenge of declining reimbursement through strategic partnerships. In addition to traditional hospital and health system M&A, our hospital and health system clients are increasingly pursuing Collaborative Transformations – that is, partnerships with non-traditional health care players. A successful Collaborative Transformation takes cultural integration between non-traditional partners, incorporating new technologies into health care regulatory compliance structures, and so much more.

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Five Questions with a Health Lawyer: Amanda Enyeart

Amanda Enyeart
Partner
Office: Chicago
Years at Firm: 4

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

Definitely our people. I love the depth and breadth of expertise among my colleagues. We have highly experienced lawyers in just about every health care niche you can think of and this allows us to take on client work with confidence. On top of that, we have lawyers who are gifted strategists who can take a holistic and critical look at an issue from a broad perspective. I am constantly learning from my colleagues.

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

Our clients have the potential to transform health care delivery and improve quality of care.  We see forces aligning such as changes in payment models to reward value rather than volume and the integration of advanced technology in health care settings to support health care diagnosis and decision making that could actually result in improved health outcomes for many people.  Sometimes it seems like all you hear is a lot of hype and speculation – but we get to see through our interactions with clients that some things are really changing.

The flip side is that biggest challenge to this innovation is regulatory compliance that has not kept pace with the changes in health care. There is a real struggle for resources in health [...]

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