Alex Graf helps health care companies navigate rulemaking and political tides by creating strategies that inform lawmakers and agencies how to create laws that benefit patients and businesses.
Before joining Alston & Bird, Alex served as deputy assistant secretary for legislation at the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, developing and executing the department’s legislative agenda and congressional liaison activities covering the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS), Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA), and Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA). He advised the HHS Secretary and senior Administration officials, and led engagement with Congress, on a wide range of high-profile programs including the drug pricing provisions of the Inflation Reduction Act, CMS payment policies, and mental health provisions. He also prepared the Secretary and other Administration officials for congressional hearings and engagement.
Alex spent more than a decade in the U.S. Senate, most recently as the Democratic staff director of the Finance Subcommittee on Health Care. He was the chief health care advisor to a senior member of Democratic leadership and managed the health care efforts and staff of the Democratic Policy and Communications Committee. He also served as a senior advisor on Budget Committee issues, including sequestration and budget reconciliation. Alex has shepherded numerous bipartisan bills through the legislative process and into law.