WASHINGTON—Kristie Gurley, most recently with the U.S. Department of Health & Human Services (HHS) Office of General Counsel, has rejoined Covington as a partner in its Health Care Practice and Life Sciences Industry Groups, and is based in the Washington office.
At HHS’s Office of General Counsel, Kristie focused on supporting health care programs under the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS), including the new drug pricing legislation under the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA). In her role, Kristie advised on a range of health care reimbursement and pricing matters, including advice on programs across the CMS drug pricing portfolio. She served as a lead attorney advising CMS on the IRA Medicare Drug Price Negotiation Program, working closely with the leadership of the new Medicare Drug Rebate and Negotiations Group on policy development, operations, and the first cycle of negotiations. She advised on the implementation of additional IRA drug pricing reform programs, including the Medicare Prescription Drug Inflation Rebate Program and select issues for the Part D redesign provisions. In addition, Kristie worked on the Medicaid Drug Rebate Program, including with respect to rulemaking, guidance development, and request determinations. She also helped support the development and launch of a novel drug pricing model for gene therapies under the Center for Medicare & Medicaid Innovation.
“Kristie’s reputation as a talented and skilled lawyer, along with her unique government experience with new and existing CMS programs impacting the value of innovative therapies, will be of great interest to life sciences clients in need of strategic legal and policy advice on market access, pricing, and reimbursement issues,” said Rujul Desai, co-Chair of Covington’s IRA Task Force. “Her addition continues the strong trajectory of our Health Care practice, which has important linkages with litigation, white collar, congressional investigations, and corporate practices due to the role drug pricing and market access issues now play across a wide range of firm work.”
“I am excited to return to Covington to work alongside my colleagues in providing a valuable perspective from having worked at HHS on rapidly evolving drug pricing and reimbursement issues, including the IRA,” Kristie said. “It will be especially rewarding to work with clients to navigate new market access dynamics across the CMS portfolio, address related enforcement efforts from DOJ, which can be difficult to predict, and take part in counseling on litigation considerations in a post-Chevron world.”
Kristie received her J.D. from Harvard Law School and her B.S. from the Georgia Institute of Technology.
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