Caroline M. Brown

Caroline Brown is resident in our Washington office, where she chairs the firm’s Federal-State Programs practice, concentrating primarily in the Health Care area.  Ms. Brown counsels state and local governments, consulting firms, and health care providers on the federal rules and policies governing Medicaid, Medicare, the Children’s Health Insurance Program, and the new mandates of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act.  Ms. Brown also advises on other federally-funded programs, such as Temporary Assistance to Needy Families, Title IV-D Child Support and Paternity Establishment, and Title IV-E Foster Care and Adoption Assistance.

Ms. Brown also regularly represents clients in state and federal court and in administrative appeals within the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services before the Departmental Appeals Board (DAB) and the Provider Reimbursement Review Board (PRRB).

Representative Matters

• Represented a state agency in appeal of a Medicaid disallowance for school-based services which CMS claimed to be in violation of the “free care” rule.  The HHS Departmental Appeals Board held that there was no basis for CMS’s expansive interpretation of the rule, and reversed.
• Represented a state agency in appeal of a plan disapproval in which the 5th Circuit reversed CMS and held that costs of hospital-based rural health clinic could be included in hospital’s disproportionate share payments (2003).
• Represented a hospital before the PRRB and in district court in which the court reversed decision of Medicare intermediary and awarded over $4 million in increased graduate medical education payments (2003).

Pro Bono

• Filed Supreme Court amicus brief on behalf of the American Civil Liberties Union and others in Town of Castle Rock v. Gonzales (2005).
• Filed Supreme Court amicus brief on behalf of the National Partnership for Women & Families and others in Jackson v. Birmingham Bd. of Education (2004).
• Represented plaintiffs in race discrimination suits filed against Cracker Barrel restaurants in Arkansas and Mississippi (2004).