Professional Experience
Melinda Dutton serves as a partner within the healthcare division of Manatt, Phelps & Phillips, LLP ("Manatt"), and also plays a leadership role within Manatt Health Solutions, an interdisciplinary policy and business advisory practice within the firm. Ms. Dutton’s practice concentrates on advising clients in the healthcare industry with respect to regulatory, public policy and business matters.
Ms. Dutton has extensive experience working with public health insurance programs and the healthcare safety net, and represents a broad array of healthcare clients in navigating the legal, regulatory and political challenges of Medicaid, SCHIP and other public programs. She assists health centers, hospitals, home care agencies and other providers with issues related to business strategy and reimbursement, as well as licensure and regulatory compliance. Ms. Dutton also provides strategic counsel, policy analysis and research support to foundations, think tanks and advocacy organizations for children, the disabled and other vulnerable populations. She has written extensively on the laws and systems that govern public health insurance programs, particularly as they relate to eligibility, benefit delivery and reimbursement, and is currently advising foundations, state governments and provider groups on the implications of health reform.
Ms. Dutton has been engaged in a wide variety of projects involving use of health information technology to improve the quality and efficiency of healthcare. She has supported statewide, multi-stakeholder health information exchange planning efforts in several states. She served as an adviser to New York State on the Health Information Privacy and Security Collaboration, where she identified laws, policies and business practices that support the private and secure exchange of health information, and has assisted states in developing strategic and operational plans to support both statewide health information exchange and implementation of Medicaid incentives under HITECH.
Prior to joining Manatt Ms. Dutton served for nine years at the Children’s Defense Fund in New York, where she helped develop and secure passage of legislation expanding publicly funded health insurance programs for children. Ms. Dutton started her legal career at South Brooklyn Legal Services, where she helped establish a health law practice serving low-income populations.
Ms. Dutton has served as a guest lecturer for numerous health law and policy courses at colleges and universities, including New York University School of Law, Columbia Law School and New York Medical College, and she has served as a practitioner-in-residence at Saint Louis University School of Law, the top-ranked healthcare law program in the country.
Education
Columbia Law School, J.D., James Kent Scholar, 1992.
Kansas State University, B.A., Political Science, cum laude, 1988.
Publications
M. Dutton, M. Smith, S. Woda, "Study of Navigator Program and Consumer Assistance," Commissioned by the Maryland Health Benefit Exchange, in conjunction with the Navigator and Enrollment Advisory Committee, November 2011.
D. Bachrach and M. Dutton, "Medicaid Supplemental Payments: Where Do They Fit in Payment Reform?" Center for Health Care Strategies, August 2011.
D. Bachrach, P. Boozang, M. Dutton and A. Lam, "HHS Proposed Rules on Exchange Implementation Requirements," Robert Wood Johnson Foundation's State Health Reform Assistance Network, August 2011.
D. Bachrach, P. Boozang and M. Dutton, "Medicaid's Role in the Health Benefits Exchange: A Road Map for States," National Academy for State Health Policy, March 2011
M. Dutton and A. Lam, “Implementing National Health Reform in California: Opportunities for Improved Access to Care,” California HealthCare Foundation, March 2011.
D. Bachrach, P. Boozang and M. Dutton, “ ‘Revisioning’ Medicaid as Part of New York’s Coverage Continuum,” Medicaid Institute at the United Hospital Fund, January 2011.
D. Bachrach, P. Boozang, M. Dutton and A. Lam, “Implementing Federal Health Care Reform: A Roadmap for New York State,” NYS Health Foundation, August 2010.
M. Dutton, W. Bernstein, P. Campbell and A. Lam, "Implementing National Health Reform in California: Changes to Public and Private Insurance," California Healthcare Foundation, June 2010.
M. Dutton, K. Bell, K. Griffin and L. Braslow, “Streamlining New York’s Medicaid Excess Income Program,” NYS Health Foundation, May 2009.
M. Dutton, K. Griffin and A. Cohen, “Automated Renewal: Strategies to Maintain Coverage of Eligible Children in Medicaid and Child Health Plus,” United Hospital Fund, December 2008.
A. Cohen, M. Dutton, K. Griffin and G. Woods, “Streamlining Renewal in Medicaid and SCHIP: Strategies from Other States and Lessons for New York,” United Hospital Fund, May 2008.
R. Belfort, W. Bernstein, M. Dutton, T. Keville and J. Murchinson, “Whose Data is it Anyway? Expanding Consumer Control Over Personal Health Information,” California HealthCare Foundation Issue Brief, February 2008, available here.
M. Dutton, P. Epp, L. DuPont and H. Pfister, “Supporting Health-Center IT Investments Through Medicare and Medicaid,” Health Affairs Blog, December 5, 2007, available here.
A. Cohen, M. Dutton, P. Boozang, J. Hudman and G. Woods, “Filling the Gaps: Medicaid, EPIC and ADAP and the Medicare Prescription Drug Benefit in New York,” for the United Hospital Fund, December 2006.
P. Boozang, M. Dutton and J. Hudman, “Citizen Documentation Requirements in the Deficit Reduction Act of 2005: Lessons from New York,” Kaiser Commission on Medicaid and the Uninsured, June 2006.
W. Bernstein, M. Dutton, L. Evans and A. Fiori, “Health Information Exchange Projects: What Hospitals and Health Systems Need to Know,” American Hospital Association, April 2006.
D. Bachrach and M. Dutton, "Strategic Approaches to Medicaid, Winning Legal Strategies in Health Care: Leading Lawyers on Industry Regulations & Creating Legal Game Plans," Aspatore Books, September 2005.
M. Dutton, J. Lytle, L. Braslow, C. Odnoha, B. Lyon and J. Farrell, "Bring Our Children Home: Improving Access To Home Nursing Services For Medically Fragile Children," Coalition For Medically Fragile Children, March 2005.
G. Fairbrother, M. Dutton, D. Bachrach, K. Newell, P. Boozang and R. Cooper, “Costs of Enrolling Children in Medicaid and SCHIP,” Health Affairs Vol. 23, No. 1, January – February 2004.
Co-author, “New York State Facilitated Enrollment Training Manual: Growing Up Healthy,” New York State Department of Health with the Children’s Defense Fund, the Health Plan Association and Statewide Youth Advocacy, 2000.