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Mark E. Reagan

| Nov. 2, 2022

Nov. 2, 2022

Mark E. Reagan

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Hooper, Lundy & Bookman PC

Mark E. Reagan

SAN FRANCISCO - For almost 23 years, Mark E. Reagan has been at Hooper, Lundy & Bookman PC, the largest full-service law firm in the U.S. dedicated solely to the representation of health care providers and suppliers. He is currently the managing shareholder and the leader of the post-acute and long-term care practice at the firm.
He also serves as general counsel to the California Association of Health Facilities and the Massachusetts Senior Care Association, the largest trade groups serving the long-term care profession in their states. And Reagan is an advisor to the American Health Care Association.
Reagan's firm has about 60 lawyers in five offices. He said the industry faces challenges, many of them outlined at the American Health Care Association's 2022 annual conference in Nashville in October. "The sector has survived the pandemic and is mostly in recovery -- even though some states didn't do anything to provide meaningful financial support. Staffing and our workforce remain under pressure, but serving more patients drives revenue."
A chief concern: "We need immigration reform to get caregivers into the workforce," Reagan said. He spoke to the conference about another critical matter involving employee relations, federal regulatory provisions on the use of pre-dispute binding arbitration agreements between skilled nursing facilities and their patients and their representatives. "The CMS released surveyor guidance this summer and they need interpretation," he said, referring to the federal Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services.
In a long-running matter over patients who lack legal decision-making capacity but need skilled nursing services, Reagan, since 2016, has represented the California Association of Health Facilities in court and at the Legislature. The upshot: there is now a legal framework for these individuals to receive needed care.
Reagan worked closely with state regulators, lawmakers and representatives from the hospital and medical associations to draft and negotiate S.B. 135, signed into law in July 2021, to establish the Office of Patient Representation. He argued successfully for its constitutionality at the Court of Appeal and, in June, for extending the time to establish the program. California Association for Nursing Home Reform v. Angell, 37 Cal. App. 5th 838 (1st DCA, op. mod. June 16, 2022).
"We went to the Superior Court twice," Reagan said. "The process demonstrates how on any given day I can be in court, before the Legislature or at the Department of Aging or the Department of Public Health. I understand and am fluent in the issues at these forums and in a really complicated case like this, I can dance through them all."

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