Overview
New York is a complex and diverse state to govern—and a notoriously challenging one in which to do business. Rife with contradictions, New York contains enclaves of great wealth and pockets of devastating urban and rural poverty. The state hosts the leading global financial center, preeminent universities and research centers, high-technology companies—and 35,000 family farms. The state legislature has been variously described as an innovative laboratory of democracy and a poster child for legislative dysfunction.
A New York State of Mind
Clients come to us—and stay with us—because we deliver results. We know the intricacies of the executive, administrative, regulatory and legislative processes, and keenly understand the political terrain. Putting credibility above short-term political gain, we have developed strong relationships with government leaders and their key aides throughout state government.
Our team takes a genuine interest in your needs and is vested in your success. We're unwavering in our commitment to helping clients achieve their goals, whether we're engaged in coalition-building; designing strategic community outreach efforts; providing legislators with well-vetted policy options; drafting bills, procuring sponsors and locking up votes; or securing millions in funding, grants, contracts and awards.
Broad Firsthand Experience
Many members of our team have held prominent positions in public service, including serving as gubernatorial advisors or counsel, high-level staffers to legislators, and in other senior roles in state government, where they gained invaluable experience and insight, as well as a wide range of local, regional and state contacts.
Lobbying and Beyond
Located within walking distance of the Capitol building, our Albany office is perfectly situated to serve as a launching pad for our lobbying and administrative agency appearances. We can help you with securing landmark legislation and regulatory changes to protect or advance your interests, derailing adverse bills and proposed rules, obtaining necessary approvals from state agencies and winning reversals of adverse agency decisions in court.
As opposed to being simply a lobbying firm, we can tap into our nationally recognized health care, privacy and data security, environment and energy, advertising, infrastructure, labor, entertainment and other practices. Our lobbying for health care clients, for example, is done in close collaboration with our health care lawyers and consultants. With offices in New York City, Boston, Washington, D.C., Chicago, Sacramento, Los Angeles and San Francisco, we help you stay on top of the latest economic and political developments. We work closely with our New York City practice, which provides effective and informed advocacy for clients with interests affected by New York City government.
We do more than just open doors. We help craft the substance to protect and advance your interests.
Who we work with
We work with clients in the health care, pharmaceutical and biomedical research, real estate and construction, education and educational broadcasting, economic development (e.g., job training, affordable housing), traditional and renewable energy, transportation, technology, insurance, trade association and not-for-profit sectors.
What we do
In addition to working closely with legislators to get across clients' positions, we provide a wide array of other services, including:
- Performing public policy research, proposing legislation and monitoring legislative progress and regulatory developments
- Designing advocacy strategies, developing strategic alliances and coalitions, and organizing grassroots support
- Attending legislative committee hearings and formal rulemaking proceedings
- Representing clients at regulatory and enforcement proceedings, audits and disciplinary actions—and in court
- Securing funding from the state budget and guiding clients through the state's complex procurement and contracting processes
- Keeping you up to date on late-breaking legislative, regulatory and legal developments
Experience
- Manatt represented Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center (MSK), the world’s largest cancer care center, on a range of regulatory, legislative and legal matters, including obtaining approval for and addressing various issues regarding a new and extensive outpatient outpost in Westchester County, New York; securing legislative approval of an amendment to the clinical laboratory statute that establishes special licensure provisions for highly specialized laboratory technicians who perform critical tests using mass spectroscopy; and creating a new physician practice organization that will undertake new approaches to providing home-based bone marrow transplant follow-up care to patients.
- Manatt assisted Montefiore Medical Center with respect to its ACO contract with Empire BlueCross BlueShield, the first agreement of its kind into which Empire entered in the New York region. Empire sought to partner with Montefiore due to its extensive experience in coordinating care, evidenced by Montefiore’s selection by the Center for Medicare and Medicaid Innovation to participate in the Pioneer ACO in late 2011, an effort with which Manatt was also centrally involved. Manatt also provides ongoing strategic, regulatory and contracting counsel to Montefiore ACO, which is now one of the most prominent and has produced the largest savings for the Medicare program of any Pioneer ACO in the U.S. We advised the ACO as it expanded to include other large participating providers and as it explored a similar ACO relationship with the state Medicaid agency and several other private payors. We have also represented Montefiore in its affiliations with a growing number of hospitals throughout the lower Hudson Valley.
- Manatt is providing guidance to New York University’s interests at the state level, including advancing and securing legislative support for professional licensing issues of particular interest to its nursing and dental schools, pushing for expansion of the STEM scholarships in the Executive Budget to private colleges and universities, and pursuing a START-UP NY partnership that would build on its existing business incubators at ACRES, DUMBO, and Varick St. by providing space for new companies as well as step-out space for their own incubator graduates. Manatt represents the University of Rochester on a host of economic development initiatives and secured legislative support for a proposal that would secure $110 million for graduate medical education and other regional health care initiatives.
- Manatt continues to represent the NYS Coalition of MLTC/PACE Plans, which has 23 members that provide care for 87% of the enrollees in managed long-term care, a program that now accounts for approximately $5 billion in Medicaid spending. We provide both the legislative and policy representation for the Coalition, as well as membership services. The MLTC and PACE Plans have faced numerous obstacles as of late, including shifting policy guidelines concerning the federal conditions of participation, and the implementation of the wage parity requirement for downstate providers. Manatt is currently engaged with both the Department of Health and the Executive to ensure that the premiums paid for these Plans remain adequate, that regulatory requirements are shaped by the clinical and operational expertise possessed by the members of the Coalition and that new initiatives, such as the Medicare-Medicaid FIDA program, are advanced in a way that promotes high-quality care.
- Manatt represented the New York Alliance for Donation—the statewide consortium of organ donation, procurement and transplantation programs—in obtaining the support of the Governor’s Office and the Legislature for a proposal to allow the Department of Health to contract with a not-for-profit mission-driven organization to improve the operation of the low-performing New York State Organ Donor Registry-and, in collaboration with Manatt’s Washington, D.C. office, is advising the liver transplant programs in the state on potential changes in the federal rules that govern the distribution of donated livers across the country.
Related Practices
Government and Regulatory
Select Clients
Always Compassionate Home Care, Inc.
Lighthouse Guild International
Managed Long Term Care/PACE Coalition
Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center
Montefiore Medical Center
New York State Association for Affordable Housing
New York State Optometric Association
New York University
NYS Coalition of Public Health Plans
NYSARC, Inc
Visiting Nurse Service of New York
