Tom Scully Joins Alston & Bird

Tom Scully, the former Bush administration official who previously headed the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS), has joined Alston & Bird in the law firm’s Washington, D.C. office.

Scully's initial focus will be on healthcare regulatory, strategic, and public policy matters.

The announcement comes on the heels of the firm’s appointment of Colin Roskey, the Senate Finance Committee lead staffer on the Medicare bill that was signed into law by the President on December 8.

“I am excited to join a team with Senator Bob Dole and Colin Roskey in bringing a strong legislative and public policy perspective to Alston & Bird’s national healthcare practice,” Scully said. “The breadth of the firm’s healthcare platform – with specialists in regulatory, corporate finance and M&A, medical products and health effects litigation, life sciences, white collar and investigations, and antitrust – provides us a unique ability to serve our healthcare clients.”

As one of Medicare’s strongest proponents – and one of its toughest critics – Scully worked tirelessly to bring reform to the nation’s largest healthcare program, serving more than 40 million Americans.

“Tom Scully was a leading architect of a fundamental restructuring in the way our nation pays for healthcare services and has arguably done as much as anyone to modernize the system and bring it into the 21st century,” said Ben Johnson, Alston & Bird’s managing partner. “He joins an influential legislative and public policy team in our Washington office and adds an unparalleled perspective to our healthcare practice.”

Scully was appointed to the CMS post by President George W. Bush in May 2001. CMS – formerly the Health Care Financing Administration – insures approximately 25 percent of the U.S. population and has the second largest program budget in the federal government.

Scully fought not only to modernize Medicare, he strived to improve the responsiveness of CMS, re-branding it, and bringing about an increased focus on quality control and measurement.

Previously, he served as president and CEO of the Federation of American Hospitals, representing 1,700 privately-owned and managed community hospitals and health systems throughout the nation.

In addition, Scully was previously a partner at a Washington-based law firm. From 1992-1993, he was deputy assistant to former President George Bush and counselor to the director of the Office of Management and Budget (OMB). He was associate director of OMB for Human Resources, Veterans and Labor from 1989-1992. He also advised former President Bush on healthcare policy, Medicare and Medicaid payment reform.

Scully holds a law degree from Catholic University and a bachelor’s degree from the University of Virginia.

Tom Scully and Colin Roskey will be providing invaluable input into a coming series of client advisories explaining the epic Medicare legislation passed by Congress and signed into law by President Bush this month. They will also be discussing the impact of the law on the health care industry.

The first advisory in the series is Medicare Prescription Drug, Improvement and Modernization Act of 2003.