Manatt Welcomes Former CMS Attorney with Extensive Medicare Knowledge and Experience

Manatt, Phelps & Phillips, LLP, a multidisciplinary, integrated professional services firm, today announced the arrival of Special Counsel  to the Firm’s Health Care group. With deep knowledge of the federal Medicare program forged in her role as legal counsel to the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS), Hunsberger works with hospital, physician, academic medical center and other health care provider clients, as well as those in the telehealth, life sciences and biotechnology sectors.

For over two decades, Hunsberger served as a senior attorney for the U.S. Department of Health & Human Services’ (HHS) Office of the General Counsel (OGC) in its CMS Division. At Manatt, she joins the Firm’s expanding national health care team, which recently welcomed former CDC Director (Washington, D.C.), public health leader (San Francisco), digital health entrepreneur (New York) and health executive (Boston).

During her tenure at HHS OGC, Hunsberger developed an intimate understanding of the Medicare program, including Part B coverage and payment, the Physician Fee Schedule, the Quality Payment Program and other quality programs, CMS Innovation Center value-based and alternative payment initiatives, telehealth and technology-based health care delivery, and administrative law. She advised CMS in developing legal options and rationales to federal government policy objectives over five Administrations and advised CMS throughout program implementation, often including notice-and-comment rulemaking. In her role, she represented CMS in discussions with other government agencies regarding significant legal issues involved in high-priority rulemaking, review and oversight. Hunsberger also advised CMS Innovation Center policy makers on legal issues in the development and testing of value-based care and other alternative payment and service delivery models; provided technical review and advice on draft health care legislation, including for the Affordable Care Act, Medicare Access and CHIP Reauthorization Act, and multiple COVID-19 public health emergency laws; and collaborated with the HHS Office of the Inspector General and Department of Justice to provide subject matter expertise in the course of investigations, prosecutions, qui tam matters and defensive Medicare litigation.

Earlier in her career, Hunsberger directed market research and planning activities—first for the faculty physician practice plan at a large state academic health science center, and then for a pediatric teaching hospital.

Hunsberger joins the Firm’s roster of legal and consulting professionals who have also joined over the last year across core industry sectors, including Digital and Technology ( and ); Financial Services (, , , , , , ); Government and Regulatory (, , and ); and Health Care (, , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , and ).

Hunsberger earned her J.D. from the University of San Diego School of Law, her M.B.A. from the University of Houston Clear Lake and her B.B.A. from the University of Texas at Austin.