An experienced healthcare regulatory attorney, Noreen helps clients find creative ways to implement new structures.
Noreen’s focus is supporting healthcare providers and health plans as they ensure appropriate reimbursement. She frequently works with providers who are finding new ways to operate: many of the clients Noreen supports are in the process of forming new healthcare networks with the aim of filling gaps in existing care. She assists with compliance and governance structures, as well as with reimbursement strategies with third-party payors, and she also represents clients in resolving situations where reimbursement has previously been limited to private pay patients but who are now able to access reimbursement from a patient’s health plan benefit.
In many cases, Noreen finds herself working with a client who’s looking to establish a new payment structure or implement a creative, unique health plan. She loves supporting clients who are seeking new and better ways to operate, and she loves building systems that will make payment more efficient while offering patients a better product. For example, Noreen has represented a state farm bureau federation in forming its own health plan, assisting with the passage of necessary legislation and working alongside organizational leaders to build out the plan. She works with healthcare sharing ministries as well, providing counsel on the complexity of managed care and insurance laws for these entities. Noreen also routinely assists major hospital systems as they contract with other local providers to expand care networks and create payment structures beyond the large insurance market.
While Noreen regularly serves clients across the healthcare spectrum, she works particularly often behavioral health providers, including those with a focus on substance use disorder treatment, and she has assisted these providers in achieving Certified Community Behavioral Health Clinic (CCBHC) status for Medicaid purposes. These clients have also been a focus in her work on privacy and cybersecurity within the healthcare space. As a leader of the firm’s healthcare privacy and security team, Noreen assembles and audits compliance programs for healthcare providers and advises on the legal implications of data and health information exchanges. She is particularly knowledgeable about these requirements in behavioral healthcare and frequently advises clients on the substance use disorder confidentiality rules in 42 CFR Part 2.
Noreen also counsels healthcare organizations and benefit plans on the new benefit administration laws of recent years, including the Mental Health Parity and Addiction Equity Act (MHPAEA), the No Surprises Act, the transparency in coverage and hospital pricing transparency regulations, Medicare Advantage compliance, and those governing risk-sharing and health insurance payment arrangements. These intensely detailed regulations establish significant data and reporting requirements and often alter organizations’ existing contracts, recordkeeping procedures, and various other policies.
Prior to joining Husch Blackwell, Noreen served in both legal and executive positions for a national managed behavioral health joint venture. Her background means that she intuitively understands the operational needs and concerns of healthcare leaders, and she’s well-versed in the strategic thinking these organizations require. It’s second nature for her to come alongside c-suite executives, partnering with them as they think through the implications of a new payment structure.