FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:
Contact Person: Vincent Versage, Partner
Company Name: The National Group
Voice Phone Number: 202 427 5030
Email Address: [email protected]
Website URL: www.thenationalgroup.net
NATIONAL GROUP ANNOUNCES SPECIAL HEALTHCARE REFORM LEGISLATION LOBBYING PRACTICE GROUP
Monday, October 2, 2017 – The National Group, a federal government relations practice in Washington, D.C., announced today the launching of a special lobbying group focused on the series of healthcare reform proposals now pending in Congress and in the queue for consideration this Fall and into 2018.
“With Congress putting repeal and replacement of the ACA on the back burner for now, we anticipate that several other healthcare reform pieces of legislation are going to move either as part of a huge year-end budget or tax package or as an alternative separate health care package early in the new year”, said David McNitt, a CMS advocacy specialist and one of the co-leaders of the National Group special lobbying group.
“With CHIP, Medicare Extenders, Drug Pricing/340B, Veterans Choice Program, and many other healthcare and Medicare-related measures under consideration – and some having to be reauthorized soon – there are huge opportunities for organizations to be influential in how this legislation is drafted and later considered by various House and Senate Committees. We have put together a group of very seasoned lobbyists, both from our firm and our sister law firm, Oldaker Willison, who know healthcare and have the relationships both on the Hill and within the Trump Administration to help our clients during this process,” said Valerie Osborne, The National Group’s healthcare practice leader and co-leader of the special healthcare lobbying group.
The National Group/Oldaker Willison lobbying practices currently represent a host of hospitals, medical centers, health care systems and healthcare and biotech companies before Congress, CMS, HHS, DOD, FDA and other federal agencies. The two firms’partners, of-counsel professionals and strategic advisors work together frequently on client opportunities and objectives. The prospect of so many pieces of healthcare legislation coming before Congress over the next few months prompted the two firms to formalize a special lobbying team that could quickly and substantially bolster any client’s government affairs effort facing important decisions on Capitol Hill.
“It was our thinking, after hearing from some of our current clients and some potentials, that with such an overload of legislation in healthcare coming down the pike so swiftly, there is a need for organizations to bulk up their lobbying operations – we strongly believe that our special combined group can be the answer,” said Vince Versage, founding partner of The
National Group.
Members of the combined National Group/Oldaker Willison team are:
·David McNitt, partner, Oldaker Willison – team leader
·Valerie Osborne, partner, The National Group – co-team leader
·Vincent Versage, partner, The National Group
·William Oldaker, partner, Oldaker Willison
·Drew Willison, partner, Oldaker Willison
·Matt Trant, partner, The National Group
·Mike Szymanski, partner, The National Group
·Jeff Lawrence, partner, The National Group
·Sean O’Shea, of counsel
·Jennice Fuentes, of counsel
·Alan Yordy, former CEO, Peace Health, strategic advisor/healthcare
·Dr. David Schmidly, former President, University of New Mexico, strategic advisor
Many of these individuals have had long federal lobbying careers and have worked previously for both Congress and various federal agencies and Presidential Administrations. The members of this group are also influential on both sides of the political aisle, which is critical at this time in Washington.
Past accomplishments in healthcare lobbying by The National Group/Oldaker Willison include:
·Secured amendments to the FDA User Fee Reauthorization Act to
benefit client;
·Organized ad-hoc coalition to reverse CMS payment cuts to hospitals;
·Blocked harmful reforms to Medicare contracting program;
·Aided bio-tech company and academic partner in securing federal funding for development of new drug therapies;
·Amended DOD medical research program to include new research initiative led by client, later resulting in $11.5 million research grant for client;
·Helped client secure $6 million in federal healthcare innovation grant;
·Representation of healthcare institutions and systems before CMS and HHS on wide variety of regulatory matters.
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