Patrick Dugan returns to Squire Patton Boggs from Medical Mutual; Sen. Obhof joins firm

Patrick Dugan has returned to the Columbus office of Squire Patton Boggs, joining its health-care law practice with insurance industry perspective after five years with Medical Mutual of Ohio.

Among other tasks as chief legal officer and executive vice president of the Cleveland-based insurer, Dugan was architect of its Obamacare strategy.

"I often felt like a field general in a Civil War battle," Dugan said. "I loved it."

Also joining the Columbus office is Ohio Sen. Larry Obhof Jr., R-Medina, who will be a trial attorney with a focus on appellate cases.

Health care is a top priority for the global firm, formed from a merger this summer of Cleveland law firm Squire Sanders and Washington, D.C., public policy and lobbying firm Patton Boggs.

Dugan, partner in the health-care practice, will lead an initiative on the more complex interactions and integration between the health-care industry and insurers, said Alex Shumate, Squire's Columbus-based managing partner for North America.

"The future of health-care reform is going to be provider-payer convergence," Dugan said.

Instead of negotiations simply to set rates, the players are trying to find a way to measure and pay for improving patient health in cost-effective ways. Doctors and hospitals are making part of their compensation dependent on achieving such measures, Dugan said. This all brings up legal, tax and regulatory questions, including the competing federal interests of forcing larger scale through health reform and questioning monopolies through anti-trust law.

The deals can be harmonious accountable care organizations – but sometimes the two industries step on each other's toes when a hospital system forms its own health plan or an insurer acquires hospitals, he said, as in the split between Highmark Inc. and University of Pittsburgh Medical Center.

Carrie Ghose covers health care, startups and technology for Columbus Business First.