Professional Experience
Ms. Cohen provides advice on legal issues, policy, advocacy and strategy to healthcare and not-for-profit clients. Before joining Manatt, she served as Health and Oversight Counsel to the U.S. Senate Finance Committee, where she advised Senator Max Baucus (D-MT) and other members of the Finance Committee on legislative and investigative matters relating to Medicaid, Medicare, and the Children’s Health Insurance Program. In that role, she participated actively in negotiating and drafting the Medicare Modernization Act of 2003. She also served as Senior Policy Counsel at the Medicare Rights Center from 2004-2005, where she represented consumers’ interests in implementation of the new Medicare legislation.
Ms. Cohen worked at the U.S. Department of Justice from 1996-2001 as a trial attorney in the Civil Division and later as Counsel to Attorney General Janet Reno. Ms. Cohen defended numerous federal agencies in litigation in U.S. District Courts, including the Department of Health and Human Services, the State Department, the Central Intelligence Agency, and the Federal Communications Commission. Ms. Cohen also clerked from Fall 1995 – Fall 1996 for U.S. District Court Judge Myron Thompson (M.D. Ala.).
Education
Columbia University School of Law, J.D., 1995.
Articles Editor, Columbia Law Review.
Harvard College , A.B., History, cum laude, 1990.
Memberships & Activities
Admitted to practice in New York and Washington, D.C.
Board of Directors, Bread for the City in Washington, D.C.
Publications
Co-Author, “Streamlining Renewal in Medicaid and SCHIP: Strategies from Other States and Lessons for New York,” United Hospital Fund, May 2008.
Co-Author, “Medicare Part D Compliance,” 2008 Health Law and Compliance Update, Aspen Publishers, 2008.
Co-Author, "Filling in the Gaps: Medicaid, EPIC and ADAP and the Medicare Prescription Drug Benefit in New York," United Hospital Fund, November 2006.
Co-Author, "Client Advisory - CMS Releases Draft Fraud Waste and Abuse Chapter for the Prescription Drug Benefit Manual," Manatt, Phelps & Phillips, LLP, February 2006.
Co-Author, "Client Advisory - Significant Changes To Medicaid in Federal Deficit Reduction Action of 2005," Manatt, Phelps & Phillips, LLP, February 2006.
Co-Author, “Part D Challenges,” Health Lawyers Weekly, October 28, 2005.
Co-Author, “6.4 Million at Risk: Protecting the Poorest Americans During the Medicare Drug Transition,” Medicare Rights Center, October 2005.
Speaking Engagements
Speaker, "The Federal 340B Drug Discount Program," National Medicaid Congress, Washington, DC, June 2006.
Speaker, "Part D Compliance," 2006 Law Conference for Health Plans, Insurers, and Providers, American Health Lawyers Association and America's Health Insurance, Amelia Island, FL, May 2006.
Speaker, "Medicare Prescription Drugs: Improving Access and Implementation," Medicare Part D Community Policy Forum, New Yorkers for Accessible Health Coverage, December 2005.
Speaker, "Medicare Part D: Opportunities and Challenges," Community Health Care Association of New York State's Annual Statewide Conference, Saratoga Springs, NY, November 2005.
Speaker, "Dual Eligibles and MMA: Risks to Beneficiaries, Challenges for States, Providers and Plans," National Medicare Congress, Washington, DC, November 2005.
