Leigh offers clients nuanced health policy and legislative affairs insights informed by more than a decade of experience at the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) and on Capitol Hill. A skilled legislative and regulatory strategist, Leigh helps clients evaluate health policy proposals and anticipate policy changes.

Prior to joining McDermott+, Leigh was a senior analyst in the CMS Office of Legislation, where she provided expert technical assistance and policy analysis to Capitol Hill on some of the most consequential Medicare reforms of the past decade. She was the primary staff member on a variety of significant issues, including Medicare coverage; inpatient, critical access and rural emergency hospital payment; and graduate medical education.

Leigh previously served as a policy advisor in the CMS Office of the Administrator, where she gained a deep understanding of the executive branch policymaking process. She spent a year on detail to Capitol Hill, serving as a key staffer on Medicare Part A and other important Medicare policies.

Leigh began her CMS career as a congressional hearings specialist, a role in which she prepared agency witnesses to testify before Congress. Prior to joining CMS, Leigh served as a program associate for the Institute of Medicine, Roundtable on Value & Science-Driven Health Care. There, she helped draft Best Care at Lower Costs: The Path to Continuously Learning Health Care in America, a consensus study identifying challenges in the US healthcare system and making recommendations for improvements.