Cassie’s practice primarily involves advising health care clients on transactional and regulatory matters. Cassie has served as deal counsel on a number of transactions, including mergers and acquisitions, joint ventures, and affiliations for clients across the health care spectrum, including a Fortune 250 kidney care company, and providers of radiology services, addiction treatment, and behavioral health services. She also regularly acts as a subject matter expert, advising clients on HIPAA/privacy compliance, telehealth and other digital health matters, corporate practice issues, professional and facility licensing, determinations of need/certificates of need, and Medicare and Medicaid compliance. Cassie also has experience advising non-profit organizations on matters related to formation and corporate governance.
Throughout her career, Cassie has worked with providers, payors, and individual patients, so she understands the unique challenges facing clients in the ever-changing health care landscape. She enjoys working with interdisciplinary teams to come up with creative solutions to her clients’ problems.
Prior to joining Mintz, Cassie worked as in-house counsel at a national senior living company. There she advised the business on matters related to state and federal health care regulations, physician arrangements, reimbursement, fraud and abuse, and HIPAA/privacy. Cassie’s in-house experience informs current her practice, enabling her to anticipate and relate to clients’ legal and business needs.
Cassie is particularly passionate about addressing access to behavioral health and substance use disorder treatment, especially for underserved communities, and she currently serves on the Board of the South Boston Collaborative Center, a substance abuse and mental health treatment center located in South Boston.
Education
- Suffolk University Law School (JD, summa cum laude)
- Boston College (BA, cum laude)
Involvement
- Member, American Health Law Association
- Member, Boston Bar Association
- Board Member, South Boston Collaborative Center
Recent Insights
Viewpoints
Potential Pitfalls of Telehealth Prescribing
May 31, 2022 |Blog
Events
Join WBL, Mintz and MDLive for a webinar that will examine how COVID-19 has transformed the delivery of telehealth services in just six months and predict which changes are likely to be permanent.
Viewpoints
Health Law Diagnosed – Digital Health During the PHE and Beyond: Leveraging Telehealth to Address Disparities in Access to Care
June 14, 2022 | Podcast | By Bridgette Keller, Cassandra Paolillo
Telehealth has the potential to counteract historical disparities in access to health care. Listen to hear how Andy Ward, Director of the South Boston Collaborative Center, and Kate Steinle, Chief Clinical Officer of Folx Health, are leveraging telehealth to serve their communities.
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Potential Pitfalls of Telehealth Prescribing
May 31, 2022 | Blog | By Lara Compton, Ellen Janos, Cassandra Paolillo
As we’ve previously covered, while Congress has acted to extend certain COVID-era telehealth flexibilities (mostly related to Medicare coverage) beyond the Public Health Emergency (PHE), the future of prescribing controlled substances via telehealth is uncertain. Although the American Telemedicine Association and other industry groups continue to advocate for changes to allow telehealth providers to prescribe controlled substances in certain circumstances, without further action by Congress or the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA), telehealth providers who prescribe controlled substances will need to conduct an in-person examination of the patient once the PHE ends.
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Health Law Diagnosed — Transactions Part 2: The Role of Health Regulatory Diligence and How to Prepare for a Sell-Side Transaction
March 24, 2022 | Podcast | By Tara E. Dwyer, Xavier Hardy, Bridgette Keller, Lauren Moldawer, Cassandra Paolillo, Kate Stewart
Telehealth Update: A Federal Appropriations Bill, A Positive OIG Report, and Good News from HHS
March 22, 2022 | Blog | By Ellen Janos, Cassandra Paolillo
Last week saw a lot of great news in the world of telehealth. On March 15, President Biden signed into law H.R. 2471, the “Consolidated Appropriations Act, 2022”, which extends many of the Medicare telehealth flexibilities put in place during the COVID-19 pandemic for a period following the end of the Public Health Emergency (“PHE”). The same day, the OIG issued a report highlighting the positive impact telehealth had on increasing access for beneficiaries during the first year of the pandemic. Then, during a press conference on March 18, HHS Secretary Xavier Becerra said that HHS will seek to sustain and expand access to telehealth services after the public health emergency ends. While these developments signal the continued expansion of telehealth, there is still some uncertainty surrounding coverage, reimbursement and licensure flexibilities that have allowed telehealth to flourish for the past two years.
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Health Law Diagnosed — Transactions Part 1: Regulatory Trends in Recent Health Care Transactions
March 3, 2022 | Podcast | By Susan Berson, Xavier Hardy, Bridgette Keller, Lauren Moldawer, Cassandra Paolillo, Kate Stewart
2021 was a busy year for Mintz ’s Health Law team, as they helped clients navigate complex health care transactions.
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Telehealth Update: New Bill Could Provide Much Needed Certainty to Providers and Patients
February 10, 2022 | Blog | By Ellen Janos, Cassandra Paolillo
On Monday, February 7, 2022, U.S. Senators Catherine Cortez Masto, D-Nevada, and Todd Young, R-Indiana, introduced the Telehealth Extension and Evaluation Act, which if passed, would extend several of the telehealth waivers for two years after the end of the federal public health emergency (PHE). See our previous coverage of telehealth during the COVID-19 pandemic. The PHE was most recently renewed for an additional 90 days on January 16, 2022. Since January 2020, providers who pivoted to telehealth in order to deliver care to their patients during the pandemic have had to closely monitor the status of the PHE, which the Secretary of HHS is only authorized to extend for 90 days at a time. Passage of the proposed legislation would provide some much-needed certainty and would give providers time to transition back to in-person care where necessary. It would also further the growth and expansion of telehealth services and continued integration into our health care delivery system.
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Removing Barriers to Second Chances
January 24, 2022 | Article
Mintz initiated many pro bono projects to combat systemic racism after the murder of George Floyd, including organizing Massachusetts Criminal Offender Record Information sealing clinics with the Lawyers Clearinghouse and conducting research for a Boston-based nonprofit into how housing authorities around the country evaluate applicants with open criminal charges.
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Post-Pandemic Access to Telehealth: Highlights of the CMS 2022 Physician Fee Schedule Final Rule
November 11, 2021 | Blog | By Cassandra Paolillo, Ellen Janos
Last week, CMS announced its final Physician Fee Schedule Payment Policies (the “Final Rule”), which will become effective January 1, 2022. The Final Rule included several updates to Medicare coverage of telehealth services, including a number of COVID-19 related changes that will be extended or be made permanent. As previously covered, while temporary orders allowing expanded use of telehealth have increased access to care across the country during the public health emergency (“PHE”), the regulatory environment for telehealth has always been somewhat unsettled. The changes in the Final Rule described below signal a move towards increased access to telehealth for Medicare beneficiaries as regulators acknowledge the potential benefits of these alternate methods of delivering care.
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OIG Report Highlights Importance of Telehealth in Providing Behavioral Health Services, but Emphasizes Need for Additional Oversight
September 23, 2021 | Blog | By Cassandra Paolillo
As we’ve previously covered, the COVID-19 pandemic has brought about a major increase in the prevalence of telehealth services, due in large part to regulatory flexibilities at the federal and state levels. Beginning in March 2020, state Medicaid programs across the country loosened requirements for coverage of telehealth services provided to Medicaid beneficiaries, reducing barriers by allowing audio-only services and covering a broader scope of services delivered via telehealth. The increase in telehealth has resulted in improved access to behavioral health services in particular, but according to an OIG report issued earlier this week, state Medicaid programs will need to increase their oversight of these services if the telehealth flexibilities become permanent.
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Telehealth Update: New Bill Seeks to Understand the Impact of Telehealth During COVID-19 as State COVID-19 Orders Expire
August 11, 2021 | Blog | By Cassandra Paolillo
As previously discussed, many of the telehealth flexibilities in place during the COVID-19 pandemic are set to expire at the end of the federal Public Health Emergency (PHE), unless federal and state legislators act to make the changes permanent. A recent bill introduced by Representative Robin Kelly (D-IL) suggests that Congress is interested in expanding access to telehealth services for Medicare and Medicaid beneficiaries if the benefits of increased access to telehealth can be demonstrated. According to a press release issued by Representative Kelly’s office, “Telehealth has the potential to help equalize healthcare access for underserved populations. However, we need data to understand utilization, cost, fraud, privacy and how to serve those left behind by the digital divide.”
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Events
Panelist
Dec
1
2020
Telehealth: What's Next?
Women Business Leaders of the U.S. Health Care Industry Foundation (WBL) Event
Online Event