Denise Rios Rodriguez is a partner with Foley & Lardner LLP and a member of the Health Care Industry Team. Ms. Rodriguez focuses her practice on payment issues arising under government programs such as Medicare and Medicaid, including Medicaid demonstration projects and Medicare enrollment and billing appeals. She represents public and private health care providers in administrative hearings, as well as in state and federal courts. Her considerable knowledge in health-related laws and regulations is applied in advising clients on the complexities of federal, state and local health care funding, as well as strategic planning for health care systems.
Ms. Rodriguez was previously legal counsel for regulatory affairs for a large Miami-based HMO, where she was responsible for legal issues arising from the company's risk-based Medicare contract. For the first six years of her legal career, Ms. Rodriguez was an attorney for the United States Department of Health and Human Services in Washington, D.C., where she served as counsel to the Health Care Financing Administration (now the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services) and other agencies within the Department. As a government attorney she was responsible for the analysis of waiver applications from various states seeking federal approval for the implementation of innovative programs for Medicaid beneficiaries. She also provided legal advice on the development of Medicare and Medicaid regulations and policies and represented the government in federal court.
Ms. Rodriguez has been Peer Review Rated as BV® Distinguished™, a mark of excellence in Martindale-Hubbell's peer review rating system; was listed in Chambers USA: America's Leading Business Lawyer (2008-2011); and selected for inclusion in the 2009-2012 Southern California Super Lawyers® lists. She was also selected by her peers for inclusion in The Best Lawyers in America® 2011 and 2012 editions in the field of health care law.She speaks about reimbursement topics and is a regular contributor of articles to various health law publications. Ms. Rodriguez is a member of the American Bar Association (Health Law Section), the American Health Lawyers Association, and the Hispanic National Bar Association.
A graduate of the University of Michigan Law School (J.D., cum laude, 1979) and Wayne State University (B.A., with distinction, 1975), Ms. Rodriguez was admitted to the Michigan Bar in 1979 and the California Bar in 1988.