Full Name
Brian Hufford
Job Title
Partner
Company
Zuckerman Spaeder, LLP
Speaker Bio
D. Brian Hufford leads an innovative and nationally recognized practice representing patients and health care providers in high stakes disputes with health insurance companies. His efforts led to two of the largest recoveries ever obtained in ERISA-based health insurance class actions, and to a collection of other precedent setting decisions that have transformed the rights of patients and providers.
Brian’s work on reimbursement rate-related litigation against United Healthcare and HealthNet, for example, led to settlements worth over $600 million. Brian has served as co-lead counsel in other national health care litigation against United, Aetna, WellPoint, CIGNA, and various Blue Cross and Blue Shield entities. Brian has successfully argued health care appeals before the U.S. Courts of Appeal for the Second, Third and Fifth Circuits, and was lead counsel in two trials against Blue Cross and Blue Shield entities on behalf of providers and provider associations.
Most recently, Brian’s team won a landmark victory in a case challenging United Behavioral Health’s mental health and substance use level of care coverage guidelines. Former Congressman Patrick Kennedy, the sponsor of the federal mental health parity act, hailed the case as the “Brown v. Board of Education for the mental health movement,” and CNN identified it as “one of the most important and most thorough rulings ever issued against an insurance company, at the federal level, on mental health issues.”
Brian was designated by Law360 as a “Health MVP” in 2015, 2016, and 2017. He was chosen as a Plaintiff’s Attorney “Trailblazer” in 2017 by The National Law Journal, and has been recognized in industry rankings such as Benchmark Litigation and Super Lawyers. Under his leadership, the firm’s health care practice was named 2017 Health Group of the Year and 2018 Benefits Group of the Year by Law360. Brian also serves on the Editorial Advisory Board of BNA’s Health Law Reporter, is a member of the Kennedy Forum Legal Workgroup and has published health law-related opinion pieces in The Washington Post and CNBC.com.
After growing up in western Kansas, where his parents ran an adolescent residential treatment center, Brian graduated with a B.A. and a Masters of Urban Affairs from Wichita State University. He then moved to the East Coast to receive his law degree from the Yale Law School, where he met his wife, Wendy. Now, the proud father of eight children, he is committed to continuing his fight against abuses by the health insurance industry.
Brian’s work on reimbursement rate-related litigation against United Healthcare and HealthNet, for example, led to settlements worth over $600 million. Brian has served as co-lead counsel in other national health care litigation against United, Aetna, WellPoint, CIGNA, and various Blue Cross and Blue Shield entities. Brian has successfully argued health care appeals before the U.S. Courts of Appeal for the Second, Third and Fifth Circuits, and was lead counsel in two trials against Blue Cross and Blue Shield entities on behalf of providers and provider associations.
Most recently, Brian’s team won a landmark victory in a case challenging United Behavioral Health’s mental health and substance use level of care coverage guidelines. Former Congressman Patrick Kennedy, the sponsor of the federal mental health parity act, hailed the case as the “Brown v. Board of Education for the mental health movement,” and CNN identified it as “one of the most important and most thorough rulings ever issued against an insurance company, at the federal level, on mental health issues.”
Brian was designated by Law360 as a “Health MVP” in 2015, 2016, and 2017. He was chosen as a Plaintiff’s Attorney “Trailblazer” in 2017 by The National Law Journal, and has been recognized in industry rankings such as Benchmark Litigation and Super Lawyers. Under his leadership, the firm’s health care practice was named 2017 Health Group of the Year and 2018 Benefits Group of the Year by Law360. Brian also serves on the Editorial Advisory Board of BNA’s Health Law Reporter, is a member of the Kennedy Forum Legal Workgroup and has published health law-related opinion pieces in The Washington Post and CNBC.com.
After growing up in western Kansas, where his parents ran an adolescent residential treatment center, Brian graduated with a B.A. and a Masters of Urban Affairs from Wichita State University. He then moved to the East Coast to receive his law degree from the Yale Law School, where he met his wife, Wendy. Now, the proud father of eight children, he is committed to continuing his fight against abuses by the health insurance industry.
Speaking At
