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Medicaid & the Law

Legal, regulatory and strategic advice regarding America's largest health insurance payer, and one of the most complicated and least understood areas of healthcare law.

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A Loss in SCOTUS Prompts New CMS Notice of Proposed Rulemaking
Blog August 21, 2020
Before getting into the weeds of how notice-and-comment rulemaking requirements interact with CMS's ability to set payment policy – Medicaid and the Law would like to formally introduce its readers to Alexander Somodevilla (Alex), a new Associate in the Washington, DC office who will become a regular contributor to the blog. Alex has a deep background in Medicaid and Medicare law and policy, and is passionate about the issues and far-reaching impact of these programs…
Robbing Peter to Pay Paul:  Problems in Enforcing the Medicaid Secondary Payer Requirements
Blog May 23, 2019
One of the things that gets drummed into your head working with Medicaid is this:  Medicaid is a payer of last resort.  Medicaid can only pay for a health care service when there is no other payer available.  If a Medicaid beneficiary has virtually any other source of health insurance coverage, that coverage pays first. This requirement is set forth in the basic rules of the Medicaid program…
Attorneys Ross Margulies and Tom Barker to Speak at AHLAs Institute on Medicare and Medicaid Payment Issues
Blog March 22, 2019
Foley Hoag attorneys and Medicaid and the Law bloggers Ross Margulies and Tom Barker are presenting at the American Health Lawyers' Association Annual Institute on Medicare and Medicaid Payment Issues in Baltimore this week. Ross's presentation will address Medicare and Medicaid payment issues for innovative therapies.  Tom's will provide an update on Medicaid § 1115 waivers…
Court Case Involving Massachusetts Health Care Law Shows Relationship Between Medicare Payments and Medicaid
Blog December 03, 2018
In 2006, former Massachusetts Governor Mitt Romney signed Chapter 58 of the Massachusetts Acts of 2006 into law.  Chapter 58 was designed to ensure that all Massachusetts residents would have access to some form of health insurance, and it accomplished this through reforms to the individual insurance market; subsidies to purchase health insurance; and an expansion of the Massachusetts Medicaid program, known as “MassHealth.”  Many observers have suggested that the enactment of Chapter 58 in…
Immigrant Access to Healthcare
Blog September 20, 2018
Some things in the world would be much simpler if they stayed separate, but we all can't have what we want. As health care lawyers, Tom Barker and I are used to navigating complex and intersecting fields of law such as tax, contracts, fraud and abuse, insurance, and federal health care program coverage and reimbursement. But we also know a bit about immigration law from our pro bono work representing individuals seeking lawful status in the U.S…
Implications of Trump Administration Executive Order for Health Reform in 2017
Blog January 24, 2017
On January 20, 2017, President Donald Trump signed an Executive Order (EO) entitled “Minimizing the Economic Burden of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act Pending Repeal” to signal a clear message that “repeal and replace” of the Affordable Care Act (ACA) is a priority for the new administration.  On the same day, the White House Chief of Staff, Reince Priebus, issued a memorandum to executive agencies ordering an immediate “regulatory freeze” and directing the Department…
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Blog Editors

About Our Blog

Foley Hoag has a unique team of healthcare lawyers and specialists with decades of experience in statutory and regulatory analysis, compliance, government investigations, litigation and corporate transactions. Most of our lawyers and healthcare policy specialists have had a direct hand in shaping virtually every healthcare law and regulation enacted over the past four decades, including:

  • The Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act of 2010
  • The Medicare Modernization Act of 2003
  • The Food and Drug Administration Modernization Act of 1997
  • The Balanced Budget Act of 1997
  • The Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996 (HIPAA)
  • Budget reconciliation laws of the 1980s

Medicaid is also, by far, the largest health insurance payer in the United States and has even surpassed Medicare in terms of the number of enrollees. Medicaid is a crucial component in America’s health care system.


Our focus includes:

  • Medicaid coverage and reimbursement issues for innovative pharmaceutical products
  • Legal, regulatory and strategic advice for Medicaid mental health providers and payers
  • Medicaid waivers
  • State coverage of the Medicaid expansion population
  • State-specific Medicaid issues
  • Medicaid financing
  • Medicaid and long-term care

Blog Editors