- Assisting stakeholders with coverage and payment issues before CMS.
- Advising a Fortune 500 pharmaceutical and medical device supplier and health IT developer on HHS interoperability and information blocking regulations.
- Counsel for Medicare Advantage plans and related entities on compliance issues.
- Representing Medicare Advantage Special Needs Plans (SNPs) on issues before the regulators and Congress.
- Advising health care providers on COVID-19 Provider Relief Fund frequently asked questions.
- Advocating on issues related to use of telehealth and telehealth benefits.
- Developing legislation to enhance options for Medicare beneficiaries receiving post-acute care.
- Draft legislative solutions to address expiring provisions key to client business.
- Prepared comment letters for industry coalitions.
Elinor A. Hiller
Partner,
- Phone: +1 202 239 3766
- Email: elinor.hiller@alston.com
Elinor draws on her experience working with policymakers at CMS and in Congress to advise clients on complex regulatory and legislative matters. She served as the CMS administrator’s senior advisor for Medicare and as a group director in the CMS Office of Legislation.
Elinor Hiller is a partner in the Health Care Group. She focuses her practice on regulatory and legislative issues concerning health care payers, providers, and manufacturers. She has experience representing clients across the health care industry on policy matters, with a focus on Medicare Advantage and Part D, Medicare fee-for-service payment rules, interoperability and price transparency, and federal insurance oversight.
Elinor previously served at the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS), where she was most recently the administrator’s senior advisor for Medicare. Elinor advised the administrator and other senior agency officials on all parts of Medicare and also led initiatives related to health care price transparency. Earlier in her time at CMS, Elinor was the director of the Medicare Parts C and D Analysis Group in the Office of Legislation, where she managed interactions between the agency and Capitol Hill on a portfolio of issues including provider integrity. From the Office of Legislation, she worked closely with staff for the Senate Finance, House Ways & Means, and House Energy & Commerce Committees on legislative priorities and Administration policy.
Chambers USA: America’s Leading Lawyers for Business has recognized Elinor in the area of Government Relations: Federal.
Bar Admissions
- District of Columbia
- Massachusetts (Inactive)
Education
- Georgetown University (J.D., 2007)
- Wellesley College (B.A., 2004)
Memberships
- American Health Lawyers Association
Healthy Byte | DEA and HHS Propose Special Registration for Telemedicine Rule for Prescribing Controlled Substances
Sean Sullivan, Elinor Hiller, and Alex Graf discuss the proposed special registration for telemedicine, changes from the temporary rules, and the difficulties lawmakers are facing to get this done.Healthy Byte | How Would the 2025 Physician Fee Schedule Change Telehealth Services?
Sean Sullivan and Elinor Hiller discuss how CMS uses the Medicare Physician Fee Schedule annual release to define covered telehealth services, propose telehealth coverage for new service categories, allow audio-only telehealth in certain circumstances, and address Medicare enrollment for telehealth practitioners.Healthy Byte | A Look at the Unexpected First Ruling on EHR Information Blocking
Sean Sullivan and Elinor Hiller discuss highlights from a court order enjoining an electronic health records (EHR) developer from information blocking, including how the court analyzed information blocking exceptions in the context of the EHR developer using security protections like CAPTCHA, use of information blocking rules to further unfair competition actions, and what might come next.Healthy Byte | Provider Disincentives Rule for Information Blocking
Tania Khan and Elinor Hiller discuss the disincentives for health care providers who have committed “information blocking.” These disincentives were established in the final rule issued by CMS and ONC in June to implement a key provision of the 21st Century Cures Act. The rule becomes effective July 31, 2024.Healthy Byte | HIPAA vs. Information Blocking – How Can Providers Thread the Needle?
Sean Sullivan and Elinor Hiller discuss the tension between the HIPAA right of access and information blocking rules, plus the provider disincentives rule, the potential of dual penalties, and how providers can navigate it all.Healthy Byte | HHS Proposes Rule to Disincentivize Information Blocking for Health Care Providers
Sean Sullivan, Elinor Hiller, and Brian Lee discuss the context for these new proposed disincentives, what’s in the proposed rule, what the effect could be on providers, and the deadline for public comments.Healthy Byte | Digesting the OIG’s Final Rule on Information Blocking Penalties
Sean Sullivan and Elinor Hiller read between the lines and discuss the effective date, who the rule applies to, enforcement priorities, and potential penalties.Healthy Byte | Live from HIMMS 23
Jane Lucas, Elinor Hiller, and Sean Sullivan share their impressions from the HIMSS Conference, discuss the intersection of federal policy and health technology, share insights from CMS conference presentations, and highlight top lines from a brand-new Office for the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology (ONC) proposed rule.Healthy Byte | White House and HHS Both Update Their Cybersecurity Guidance
Elinor Hiller and Kate Hanniford cover the key new issues that come from the recently released National Cybersecurity Strategy, its aim to set a standard across the spectrum of regulators, and the updated Health Care and Public Health Sector Cybersecurity Framework Implementation Guide from the Department of Health and Human Services.Healthy Byte | Reimbursement for Telehealth Through the End of PHE and Beyond
Sean Sullivan and Elinor Hiller expand on their recent “Payments and Reimbursement” chapter in the AHLA Telehealth Law Handbook by discussing the passage of the Consolidated Appropriations Act of 2023, which extends several telehealth flexibilities through 2024, and the reimbursement rules for Medicare telehealth services after the PHE ends.Healthy Byte | CMS Requests Information on Establishing a National Directory of Healthcare Providers & Services
Elinor Hiller and Sofia Molodanof discuss the challenges of keeping provider directories updated, existing requirements for health plans, and what CMS is looking for in requesting information on a possible National Directory of Healthcare Providers & Services (NDH).Healthy Byte | Re-Imagining Health: Live from HIMSS22 in Orlando
Jane Lucas, Sean Sullivan, and Elinor Hiller review what they are hearing at the Healthcare Information and Management Systems Society’s annual conference.Healthy Byte | What Is TEFCA and How Will It Advance Interoperability?
Elinor Hiller and JP Paluskiewicz discuss the nonbinding principles under the Trusted Exchange Framework, the universal floor for interoperability via the Common Agreement, how we got here, and what to expect next.Healthy Byte | HIMSS 2021 – The View from Las Vegas
Elinor Hiller, JP Paluskiewicz, Jane Lucas, and Sean Sullivan discuss what health care regulators and industry leaders shared with attendees at the annual HIMSS conference in August 2021.Healthy Byte | Interoperability and Payer API Requirements Under the 21st Century Cures Act
Elinor Hiller and Sean Sullivan discuss what payers can expect from new API requirements under the 21st Century Cures Act and CMS’s interoperability rule.Healthy Byte | Update on Information Blocking Regulations
Elinor Hiller and Sean Sullivan discuss the steps health care providers should be taking to avoid compliance issues.Healthy Byte | Price Transparency Requirements
Elinor Hiller discusses recent price transparency developments.Healthy Byte | How Do the Information Blocking Rules Relate to Existing HIPAA Infrastructure?
Sean Sullivan and Elinor Hiller discuss the interplay between HIPAA, interoperability, and the new Information Blocking provisions.Healthy Byte | What Are Some Exceptions to the Prohibition on Information Blocking That Make the Greatest Impact?
Elinor Hiller and Sean Sullivan discuss the areas of greater impact from the Information Blocking provisions, and the compliance v. enforcement dates.Healthy Byte | What Are Some of the Key Benefits to the New Rules?
Sean Sullivan and Elinor Hiller discuss the benefits of the interoperability rules to patients, providers, and health IT developers.Healthy Byte | What is the Intent Behind the Interoperability Rules, and What are Some of the Major New Requirements for Providers and Payers?
Sean Sullivan and Elinor Hiller discuss the newly modified conditions for hospital participation and requirements for payers to make provider networks publicly available.Healthy Byte | Who Is Most Affected By the Information Blocking Prohibitions?
Elinor Hiller and Sean Sullivan discuss the types of organizations involved in exchanging health care information that are likely to be pulled in to the definition of a health information network or exchange.- Health Care
- Health Care Legislative & Public Policy
- Health Care Regulatory Counseling and Fraud & Abuse
- FDA: Drug & Device
- Legislative & Public Policy
- Hospitals & Hospital Systems
- Digital Health Care
- Electronic Health Records, Interoperability & Health IT
- Telehealth Program Development & Compliance Considerations
- Remote Patient Monitoring
- Technology-Enabled Behavioral Health