Susan Whittaker Hughes

Partner

Cleveland
T +1.216.861.7841
F +1.216.696.0740

Overview

Susan Whittaker Hughes concentrates her practice on providing exceptional legal services to employee benefit providers and administrators, with a particular emphasis on servicing large employers with comprehensive benefit offerings. Her practice focuses on health and welfare benefit plan design, strategy and compliance.

She has extensive knowledge of and experience with health data privacy issues and healthcare delivery strategies. In addition, Susan has experience with qualified plans and executive compensation issues, so she is equipped to field and provide advice and counsel on the full spectrum of employee benefit matters.

Susan builds strong client relationships, and always seeks to develop a thorough understanding of her clients’ individualized needs. She works to find practical — and, where necessary, creative — solutions to navigate statutory and regulatory restrictions to achieve client goals.

Susan has served as the Chair of the Cleveland office's Inclusion and Diversity Committee.

Select Experience

  • Assists employers in developing cutting-edge employee health plans to improve participant outcomes and lower plan costs through the use of specialized and tiered networks, direct provider contracting, bundled service arrangements, specialty service carve-out arrangements and other tools.
  • Assists clients with implementing highly specialized health and welfare benefit plan strategies, including the use of specialized networks, disease management techniques and wellness incentive programs.
  • Negotiates health data use and sharing agreements to assist clients in achieving optimized employee health and plan financial outcomes.
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Experience

  • Assists employers in developing cutting-edge employee health plans to improve participant outcomes and lower plan costs through the use of specialized and tiered networks, direct provider contracting, bundled service arrangements, specialty service carve-out arrangements and other tools.
  • Assists clients with implementing highly specialized health and welfare benefit plan strategies, including the use of specialized networks, disease management techniques and wellness incentive programs.
  • Negotiates health data use and sharing agreements to assist clients in achieving optimized employee health and plan financial outcomes.
  • Regularly negotiates significant third-party administrator and vendor service agreements on behalf of benefit plan sponsors to ensure statutory and regulatory compliance and to achieve effective and efficient benefit plan operations.
  • Counsels clients through Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) Privacy and Security audits by the United States Department of Health and Human Services. Guides clients through the audit process, including the establishment of comprehensive HIPAA compliance schemes within very aggressive time frames. Drafts all the documentation clients need to demonstrate compliance with HIPAA Privacy and Security regulations. 
  • Counsels clients through all phases of Affordable Care Act compliance, including the assessment and revision of plan structures and documentation to achieve market reform, employer shared responsibility and tax reporting compliance.
  • Advises large employers in the development and design of multi-faceted disability leave programs that are ERISA-compliant and complementary to state-required leave programs.
  • Assists clients with preparing the application for and navigating the Department of Labor's Voluntary Fiduciary Correction Program to successfully obtain a "no action" letter.
  • Assisted a client with the complete redesign of its employee benefit plans to accommodate a complex business reorganization. The reorganization brought many different and new classifications of employees into one benefit structure. The redesign of the benefit plan structure was completed while ensuring Internal Revenue Code and Affordable Care Act compliance.
  • Provides employee benefit and Employee Retirement Income Security Act (ERISA) expertise for the merger and acquisition activities of public and private companies, including due diligence reviews, review and negotiation of purchase agreements, and counseling clients through integration activities.

Recognitions and Memberships

Recognitions

  • The Legal 500 United States
    • Labor and Employment: Employee Benefits, Executive Compensation and Retirement Plans: Design (2022)
  • Cleveland YWCA Woman of Professional Excellence Award (2018)

Memberships

  • Worldwide Employee Benefits (WEB) Network, Northeast Ohio Chapter
  • American Bar Association
  • Ohio State Bar Association
  • Cleveland Metropolitan Bar Association

Community

  • Kinnect: Board Member (f/k/a Waiting Child Fund)
  • Cleveland Ladder Down, Class of 2020
  • St. Raphael Church (Bay Village, Ohio): Preschool Religion Teacher
  • Greater Cleveland Partnership LEAD Program, Charter Class

Industries

Emerging Issues

Admissions

  • U.S. District Court, Northern District of Ohio
  • Ohio

Education

  • J.D., Cleveland-Marshall College of Law, 2008; Salutatorian; summa cum laude; Business Editor, Cleveland State Law Review
  • M.A., Political Science, Ohio University, 2003, summa cum laude
  • B.A., Political Science, Ohio University, 2002, Honors Tutorial College, summa cum laude

Blog

In The Blogs

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Employment Law Spotlight
Group Health Plan Considerations Post-Dobbs
By Seth J. Hanft, Susan Whittaker Hughes, Jennifer A. Mills
July 5, 2022
The U.S. Supreme Court’s recent decision in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization has presented many issues for sponsors of group health plans to contemplate as they decide whether and how to proceed with the offering and...
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