Former HHS Counsel Janice Hoffman Wins 2025 Rosenberg Award
April 02, 2025
The D.C. Bar is honoring Janice L. Hoffman, former associate general counsel at the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), with its 2025 Beatrice Rosenberg Award for Excellence in Government Service. Hoffman will receive the award at the Bar’s Celebration of Leadership on June 26.
“It’s such an honor to receive the award. I’m so happy that folks from my team nominated me. I thought it was terrific,” Hoffman said. “I’m very happy.”
Overseeing approximately 100 attorneys and support staff, Hoffman guided HHS leaders as they navigated major changes, from the Affordable Care Act (ACA) to COVID-19 to the redesign of Medicare Part D program.
Hoffman, who retired in February 2025, began her three-decade career at HHS as a litigation attorney in the Office of the General Counsel (OGC) under the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services Division (CMS). In 2006 she was promoted to deputy associate general counsel for program review, serving as the career civil servant manager for the group reviewing CMS regulations and guidance prior to publication.
Two years later, Hoffman became HHS associate general counsel, a position she held for 17 years. As CMS’s principal career legal adviser, she ensured the legality of CMS’s governance of Medicare, Medicaid, the Children’s Health Insurance Program, and ACA health exchanges and market reforms, defending them from federal court challenges. She also helped protect federal funds, working with the U.S. Department of Justice and the HHS Office of the Inspector General to investigate and litigate False Claims Act cases involving fraud, waste, and abuse in the operation of CMS programs.
Hoffman also served as a government member of the Administrative Conference of the United States, an independent agency within the executive branch charged with identifying ways to improve federal agency procedures that protect the public interest.
When the ACA was signed in March 2010, Hoffman convened a team of attorneys to support CMS’s implementation of the law, helping to draft, review, and clear comprehensive regulations. She and her team also defended the act against legal challenges, playing a pivotal role in two victories for the ACA in the U.S. Supreme Court — one upholding the constitutionality of the act itself, and the other ensuring the availability of premium tax credits to individuals who purchased their insurance coverage on federal ACA health insurance marketplaces.
“It was a very, very busy time,” Hoffman said. “The deadlines and the legislation were very tight and spanned many different programs in addition to the marketplace implementation and market reforms for private health insurance. There were a lot of changes to the Medicaid program … And we knew that we were going to have to defend a lot of the implementation against litigation. And, of course, that certainly came to pass. So, we advised with that in mind.”
During the COVID-19 crisis, Hoffman and other CMS attorneys worked to help ensure Americans’ safety and health. At the height of the pandemic, under incredibly short deadlines, her staff reviewed and cleared four interim final rules and a ruling that expanded the availability of COVID-19 testing and ensured adequate access to care. Hoffman ensured that these rules had a solid legal basis and conformed to applicable legal standards despite the speed of their publication.
Hoffman also advised on cutting-edge legal issues relating to nursing home safety as nursing homes became “ground zero” during the early days of the pandemic. Hoffman and her team also oversaw the review and expansion of public health emergency waivers, and helped CMS respond to urgent requests from Medicare providers and suppliers who were on the front line of patient care while facing a critical shortage of cash during the shutdown.
Reflecting on her work during the pandemic, Hoffman said, “I was really proud of our clients and our OGC team of how hard we worked to make sure that all that could be done for the American people was done in terms of protection, [particularly] in nursing homes, which are funded by Medicare and Medicaid. That became an important issue.”
Most recently, Hoffman led CMS’s efforts to implement the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) Medicare drug negotiation and rebate program as well as the redesign of the Medicare Part D program. Similar to her work involving the ACA, she assembled a formidable team of lawyers dedicated to supporting the agency in implementing the act and defending it against numerous legal challenges.
Implementation of the IRA required navigating a host of complex, novel legal questions on a compressed statutory timeline, including establishing rules for the negotiation of prices for the first cohort of drugs that were selected just over a year after enactment of the law. Also during that time, Hoffman oversaw the development of multiple guidance documents establishing the new Medicare rebate programs and a sweeping overhaul of the Medicare prescription drug benefit.
“A lot of hard work went into [those efforts], both from our clients and the lawyers at OGC in implementing those programs after Congress legislated them,” Hoffman said. “It was a great honor to work on the implementation of all those programs.”
During her tenure at HHS, Hoffman received five awards: the HHS Excellence in Legal Services award (1998), the CMS Administrator’s Award for assistance in implementing the Medicare Modernization Act of 2003 (2004), the HHS OGC Career Achievement Award (2013), the HHS Secretary’s Award for Distinguished Service (2014), and the Presidential Rank Award (2021).
Before joining the federal government, Hoffman worked in the health care practice of Casson, Harkins & LaPallo P.C. She received a bachelor of arts degree with a double major in government and economics from William & Mary in 1979 and graduated from George Washington University Law School in 1985.
The D.C. Bar established the Rosenberg Award in honor of Beatrice “Bea” Rosenberg, who dedicated 35 years of her career to government service and performed with distinction at the U.S. Department of Justice and the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission. She also served on the Board on Professional Responsibility.
