Kinda Serafi
Partner, Manatt Health, Manatt Phelps & Phillips, LLP
Kinda Serafi advises on the legal, policy and operational challenges of the Affordable Care Act, Medicaid, the Children’s Health Insurance Program, Marketplaces, and payment and delivery reform. She has significant experience implementing and analyzing federal health care programs for an array of clients, including state governments, foundations, providers, nonprofit agencies and IT vendors. In particular, she frequently leads complex multi-stakeholder engagement efforts.
Working with multiple state governments, Kinda provides strategic counsel, policy analysis and research support. Serving as an advisor to the Robert Wood Johnson’s State Health and Value Strategies program, she provides technical assistance to states on aspects of Medicaid implementation. For the CMS Medicaid and CHIP Learning Collaboratives, she is a subject matter authority on Medicaid eligibility and enrollment. Kinda guides states and Marketplaces on policy matters, including eligibility and enrollment, benefit design, delivery system improvements, and technology development.
Kinda advises states on Medicaid expansion design, implementation and sustainability, and has particular experience in State Plan Amendments and alternative expansion models through 1115 waivers. She has supported numerous states, including Arkansas, Louisiana, Maine, Montana, New Hampshire and Virginia, in their Medicaid expansion planning and implementation.
Prior to joining Manatt, Kinda served as the director of policy of the Children’s Defense Fund (CDF) in New York where she focused on developing strategies to secure the passage of legislation to simplify rules for a public health insurance program and to expand eligibility levels. She also worked for two years as the director of legal advocacy and organizing at the Lenox Hill Neighborhood House, where she launched and supervised a multidisciplinary civil legal services department. Earlier in her career, Kinda was a law guardian at the Legal Aid Society, representing abused and neglected children in all aspects of litigation in Bronx Family Court. She also served as the deputy director of programs and policy for the CDF in Washington, D.C.
Education
- State University of New York at Buffalo, School of Law, J.D., 1999
Publications Editor, Buffalo Law Review
Recipient of Dale S. Marguiles Award for contributing the most to the law school and community - Georgetown University, B.A., English, cum laude, 1996