Meet Our Team: Q&A with Assistant Vice President, Scott Allocco

How did you become interested in working in healthcare, more specifically Medicaid? Why did you choose this path?
Since graduating from Hamilton College, I’ve always been in the public affairs and government relations field. However, my healthcare policy focus started in 1994, when I was appointed as the Director of Government Affairs for the New Jersey Department of Health in the administration of Governor Christine Todd Whitman. And in that initial healthcare role, I saw how healthcare companies relied on and tried to influence the government regulatory process. That was my first foray into the healthcare field. That was also in the middle of the AIDS epidemic, so I was responsible for AIDS and HIV policy for the state health department, so as a gay man that was an important role for me to play.

That position was what sent me on my path into healthcare; after that, I became more and more focused on the Medicaid program that provides health insurance to many vulnerable populations.

What brought you to Sellers Dorsey?
I started working at a company that served as a fiscal agent and pharmacy benefit manager for state Medicaid programs. That’s when I met Marty Sellers, Chris Labonte, and Mark Smith when Sellers Dorsey was first starting out in the early 2000s. We would cross paths at various healthcare meetings around the country. Then, about ten years ago, after I had moved out to New Mexico, Marty and the team were looking for a colleague out West to help develop new business for the firm, so we reconnected. My 10^th anniversary with the firm will be in March of 2026.

What is your special area of expertise?
Given my Medicaid policy and government affairs background, I think I really understand the challenges that healthcare companies, particularly safety-net hospitals, have in dealing with a heavily regulated environment, and how they need to understand the government affairs and regulatory landscapes as best they can to ensure the continued economic viability of their businesses.

What is your superpower and what is your kryptonite?
My superpower would be how to explain these complicated regulatory issues, particularly the CMS rules governing Medicaid financing in an easy-to-understand way. These rules related to directed payments and Medicaid graduate medical education (GME) supplemental payments are extremely complicated, so helping clients to better understand how to design and implement them most effectively would definitely be one of my superpowers.

My kryptonite? That’s a more interesting question. I think the reason I like state-focused healthcare policy, is because I much prefer state government affairs and Medicaid policy (which is largely controlled at the state level) rather than federal government affairs and the federally administered Medicare program. In Medicaid, there are federal rules that states must comply with, but to a very large extent, the state Medicaid programs are governed by the state: the governor, the state legislature, the Medicaid director, the Human Services Secretary, and the State Medicaid Director,  all have a tremendous amount of influence over the way Medicaid programs are run and administered in any given state. That gives our healthcare clients a greater opportunity to impact that process compared to the federal government, so to some extent, federal government healthcare policy is my kryptonite.

What types of clients do you typically serve?
In the Medicaid Financing practice, we primarily work with hospitals, particularly safety-net hospitals with high Medicaid populations and state academic medical centers. Those entities really rely on the Medicaid program more than other hospital systems, so it is very important for those hospital clients to really understand the Medicaid environment, particularly how to participate in CMS-authorized hospital and physician directed payment programs and Medicaid GME supplemental payment programs.  Collectively these programs help safety-net hospitals to preserve access to care, improve quality, enable health equity and promote workforce development.

What is a project that you’ve worked on while at Sellers Dorsey that you’re especially proud of?
I think the most important new opportunity that will help preserve access to care and promote healthcare workforce development involves working with our academic medical center clients to develop expanded programs to fund Medicaid GME. The Medicaid GME rules are more expansive than the Medicare GME rules, and historically, many large academic medical centers have not taken full advantage of the CMS-approved opportunities for direct and indirect Medicaid GME funding to support workforce development. So, we are working with many public academic medical centers around the country to expand their Medicaid GME programs.

What are the biggest challenges you predict for clients in the next few years? What solutions do you hope will become more prevalent?
The most important new Medicaid policy development for hospital systems was the recent decision by CMS to allow hospitals to be paid up to the average commercial rate (ACR), when CMS adopted the final version of the new Medicaid Managed Care rule. This policy change will have tremendous positive implications for hospitals around the country that have been struggling with relatively low Medicaid reimbursement rates. So, new directed payment programs for physicians and hospitals will really make a difference in preserving the economic viability of these high Medicaid, safety-net hospitals.

Pick one – Quality, Equity, Access. Why is improving (insert chosen concept) important? What does impact mean to you?
I think of those three the most important is access. Because if you don’t have access to a physician or a hospital nearby, you won’t have healthcare quality and healthcare equity. So, ensuring access to care in the Medicaid program is really the fundamental challenge. I live in New Mexico, which is one of the largest states in the country, but it’s also one of the most rural and sparsely populated. So, ensuring access to care in rural New Mexico is a supreme challenge. Hiring physicians and paying them adequate salaries to attract them to work in New Mexico is very difficult. Even in Albuquerque and Santa Fe, it is a challenge to create an adequate network of physicians in the Medicaid managed care plans. Frankly, access to healthcare providers is a challenge in New Mexico for anyone with commercial or Medicare insurance. So, being able to pay doctors and medical professionals higher wages to be able to attract them to these different environments and to encourage them to go to medical school in the first place is really, I believe, the fundamental challenge in healthcare today.

What is one fun fact that people would be surprised to learn about you?
I have been with my partner for 38 years, and given that he is a pathologist, he has been able to give me an inside perspective on the challenges of the medical profession and healthcare industry throughout our relationship. He has also helped me to become even more familiar with the real-life challenges that doctors face every day in providing quality care for their patients.

What was your very first job?
When I was 14, my father lost his job for about a year after the stock market crash of 1974. He decided to paint houses for the summer as a means of making some extra cash, but he needed some assistance carrying ladders to and from the work site, and so, my younger brother and I assisted him. In the process, I learned the house painting business. For the next eight years after that, through all of high school and college, I actually ran a house painting business, with my high school and college friends, that really helped me to finance my college education.

What is your favorite thing to do outside of work?
We live here in beautiful Santa Fe, New Mexico, so when we’re here, we try to hike in the mountains as much as possible. This past weekend, the fall foliage here was really starting to peak, so we had one of the most beautiful hikes of recent memory. We also love to travel, both in the US and internationally.

Name your all-time favorite movie or book.
That’s a really good question. I would have to say either the Ron Chernow biography of Alexander Hamilton or The Rediscovery of America by Ned Blackhawk. I went to Hamilton College, and I’ve always been very interested in American history and the role he played as a Founding Father or our country, including the founding of Hamilton which was started as the Hamilton-Oneida Academy for Native Americans in 1793. I’ve also spent a lot of time reading Native American history, like the Rediscovery of America, that describes the countless injustices against Native Americans including the litany of treaties that the US Government violated over the last 200 years. Given that there are also 23 pueblos and tribes here in New Mexico, I have really found a passion for Native American history, arts, and culture.

Want to learn more about Scott’s role at Sellers Dorsey?
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