Foley Adds Experienced HHS OIG Attorney in Washington

Foley & Lardner LLP announced today that Jill Wright has joined the firm’s Health Care Practice in the Washington, D.C. office. Wright joins Foley from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) Office of Inspector General (OIG) and the U.S. Senate Committee on Finance, bringing industry knowledge and experience to help health care clients ensure compliance and minimize risk throughout ongoing investigations.

Wright has extensive experience in health care fraud and abuse and compliance issues, including the federal Anti-Kickback Statute and physician self-referral (“Stark”) law; the civil monetary penalties (CMP) law; false claims and overpayments; government investigations; and exclusions from federal health care programs. For nearly a decade, Wright was with HHS, most recently as a senior counsel at the OIG, where she handled cases involving CMPs and the False Claims Act and appeals of exclusions from federal health care programs. In that role, she drafted the preamble of the Notice of Proposed Rulemaking for the OIG’s CMP authorities, which included Affordable Care Act amendments to the CMP law and a significant restructuring of the OIG’s CMP regulations, as well as revisions to existing authorities, such as Emergency Medical Treatment and Labor Act regulations. Prior to her time at the OIG, Wright worked at HHS’s Departmental Appeals Board, where she advised administrative law judges regarding appeals from federal enforcement determinations related to Medicare and Medicaid compliance and other federal health law enforcement.

“Jill brings considerable health care knowledge across a wide spectrum of regulatory, compliance and fraud issues. Her OIG experience will help further prepare our clients for the complex and continually evolving regulatory landscape,” said Larry Vernaglia, chair of Foley’s Health Care Practice.

In addition to her HHS experience, Wright also served as senior oversight counsel at the U.S. Senate Committee on Finance on detail from the OIG, and represented the committee in meetings with health care providers, payers and patient advocates and their legal counsel, lobbyists, constituents, senior government officials and congressional staff. She helped lead the committee’s recent efforts on Stark law reform, including analyzing and formulating recommendations on approximately 50 Stark law reform proposals from providers, hospital associations and medical device and supplier associations. She also oversaw various aspects of the proposed bill, Audit & Appeal Fairness, Integrity, and Reforms in Medicare Act of 2015, and collaborated with provider associations and beneficiary associations as well as HHS representatives at the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services and the Office of Medicare Hearings and Appeals to develop and refine legislative proposals to improve the Medicare audit and appeals processes.

“We are thrilled to welcome Jill to our Washington office. Her arrival strengthens our distinguished bench of attorneys from key federal agencies who bring hands-on government experience to assist our clients and colleagues,” said Scott Fredericksen, managing partner of Foley’s Washington office.