Tara Ragone

Professor Tara Adams Ragone

Assistant Professor of Law


Tara Adams Ragone is an Assistant Professor in Seton Hall Law’s Center for Health & Pharmaceutical Law & Policy, where her research and writing presently focus on health care access, integration of behavioral and physical health care, health care privacy law, mental health parity, treatment of substance use disorder, and issues related to the representation of health care professionals. She serves in a number of advisory capacities, including the Steering Committee of the New Jersey Department of Health Colette Lamothe-Galette Community Health Worker Institute; the New Jersey iPHD Advisory Committee; the Office of the New Jersey Coordinator for Addiction Responses and Enforcement Strategies (NJ CARES); the ClearHealth Quality Institute Mental Health Parity Accreditation Program’s Parity Standards Committee, and the Good Care Collaborative’s Steering Committee. Professor Ragone developed and teaches courses on mental health parity, the law of alternative medicine, and skills for health law practice; is the Faculty Supervisor of the Health Law Semester in Washington, D.C. Program; supervises student Notes; and advises students competing in national health law competitions. She regularly has contributed to health law blogs and is a peer reviewer for a number of journals.

Prior to Seton Hall Law, Professor Ragone served as a Deputy Attorney General in the New Jersey Office of the Attorney General. She primarily prosecuted licensing actions before the State Board of Medical Examiners and the Office of Administrative Law and represented the State in federal civil rights actions brought by licensees. Ms. Ragone also twice appeared before the Supreme Court of New Jersey in a case of first impression involving a commercial speech challenge to the Court’s Rule of Professional Conduct governing attorney firm names.

Professor Ragone received her B.A. in Government and Philosophy, summa cum laude, from the College of William and Mary, where she was a member of Phi Beta Kappa. After college, she worked on a variety of domestic policy issues, including campaign finance reform, as a research assistant and verifier at the Brookings Institution in Washington, D.C.  Professor Ragone graduated magna cum laude from New York University School of Law, where she was a Root-Tilden-Kern Public Service Scholar, was elected to the Order of the Coif, and served as Senior Articles Editor for the New York University Annual Survey of American Law.

Before joining the New Jersey Attorney General’s Office, Professor Ragone served as a law clerk to the Honorable Allyne R. Ross of the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of New York and the Honorable Robert A. Katzmann of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit.

SELECTED PUBLICATIONS

LAW REVIEW ARTICLES

Health Insurer Market Behavior after the Affordable Care Act: Assessing the Need for Monitoring, Targeted Enforcement, and Regulatory Reform, 120 Penn. State L. Rev. 109 (Summer 2015) (with John V. Jacobi and Kate Greenwood)

Protecting Health Privacy in an Era of Big Data Processing and Cloud Computing, 7 Stan. Tech. L. Rev. 595 (2014) (with Frank Pasquale)

Structuring Medicaid Accountable Care Organizations to Avoid Antitrust Challenges, 42 Seton Hall L. Rev. 1443 (2012) (Symposium)

Note, "In Contempt of Contempt? Religious Motivation as a Reason to Mitigate Contempt Sanction", 1999 Ann. Surv. Am. L. 295 (1999)

CENTER PUBLICATIONS

Community Health Workers in New Jersey: The Question of Certification, Seton Hall Center for Health & Pharmaceutical Law & Policy (August 31, 2019) (Issue Brief with support from New Jersey Health Initiatives) (with John V. Jacobi)

The Puzzle of Parity: Implementing Behavioral Health Parity, Seton Hall Center for Health & Pharmaceutical Law & Policy (January 2017) (Briefing Report supported by a grant from The Robert Wood Johnson Foundation (with John V. Jacobi)

Access to Behavioral Health Services in Marketplace Plans in New Jersey The Puzzle of Parity, Seton Hall Center for Health & Pharmaceutical Law & Policy (July 2016) (Report supported by a grant from The Robert Wood Johnson Foundation) (with John Jacobi)

Access to Behavioral Health Services in Marketplace Plans in New Jersey The Puzzle of Parity, Seton Hall Center for Health & Pharmaceutical Law & Policy, Report supported by a grant from The Robert Wood Johnson Foundation (July 2016)

Integrating Behavioral and Physical Health Care in New Jersey: Legal Requirements for the Sharing of Patient Health Information among Treatment Providers, Seton Hall Center for Health & Pharmaceutical Law & Policy (June 2016) (Report supported by Funding Opportunity Number CMS-1G1-12-001 from the US Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) under Cooperative Agreement No. 1G1CMS331386-01-07)

Integration of Behavioral and Physical Health Care: Licensing and Reimbursement Barriers and Opportunities in New Jersey, Seton Hall Center for Health & Pharmaceutical Law & Policy (March 31, 2016) (Report supported by a grant from The Nicholson Foundation (with John V. Jacobi and Kate Greenwood)

A Guide to Assist New Jersey Consumer Selection of Health Insurance Plans for 2015, Seton Hall Center for Health & Pharmaceutical Law & Policy (December 2014)

The Sentinel Project: The ACA’s Marketplace Reforms and Access to Care, (Sept. 8, 2014) (with John V. Jacobi and Kate Greenwood)

New Jersey's Medicaid ACO Pilot Program, Past and Future: A Baseline Report, Seton Hall Center for Health & Pharmaceutical Law & Policy (2013) (co-authored with John Jacobi and Kate Greenwood)

The Future of HIPAA in the Cloud, (2013) (A White Paper by The Center for Health & Pharmaceutical Law & Policy) (with Frank Pasquale)

Evaluating Federal and New Jersey Regulation of Rating Factors and Rate Bands, Rutgers Center for State Health Policy & Center for Health & Pharmaceutical Law & Policy (August 2012) (Issue Brief for the New Jersey Department of Banking and Insurance, with funding provided by a grant from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services)

Implementing the Essential Health Benefits Requirement in New Jersey: Decision Points and Policy Issues, Policy Brief Issued by the Center for Health & Pharmaceutical Law & Policy & The Rutgers Center for State Health Policy (2012) (with Kate Greenwood and John V. Jacobi)

The Affordable Care Act and Medical Loss Ratios: Federal and State Methodologies, Rutgers Center for State Health Policy & Center for Health & Pharmaceutical Law & Policy (2012) (Issue Brief for the New Jersey Department of Banking and Insurance, with funding provided by a grant from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services)

OTHER PUBLICATIONS

Sustainability Plan: Interim Report, Colette Lamothe-Galette Community Health Worker Institute, New Jersey Dep’t of Health (forthcoming Fall 2020) (with John V. Jacobi)

Schools’ Continuing Obligation to Provide a Free and Appropriate Public Education to Students with Disabilities during Social Distancing, Seton Hall Law School Website (May 5, 2020)

New Jersey Takes Important Step to Improve Access to Behavioral Healthcare by Enacting Behavioral Health Parity Law, Garden State Focus, at 13-14 (Summer 2019)

Integrating Physical and Behavioral Health Care in Michigan: State Laws and Regulations Impacting the Ability to Share Health Information among Treatment Providers, Michigan Health Information Network Shared Services (May 2018) (White Paper made possible through funding from the Michigan Department of Health and Human Services) (public release pending)

Perspectives on Healthcare: Working Together to Advance Behavioral Health Parity Implementation, Garden State Focus, at 61 (Fall 2017)

Integration of Behavioral and Physical Health Care: Licensing and Reimbursement Issues, Garden State Focus, at 30-32 (Summer 2016) (with John V. Jacobi)

The Future of Affirmative Action in Higher Education, published online by the Affirmative Action and Diversity Project (1996)

PRESENTATIONS

Full list of presentations available in Curriculum Vitae

Panelist, ‘Children: Education & Safety during COVID, Seton Hall University Interprofessional Health Sciences COVID Bio-Ethics Series (September 8, 2020)

Confidentiality of Substance Use Disorder Records, New Jersey Attorney General’s Advocacy Institute, Newark, NJ (April 11, 2019)

Federal and Michigan Laws Regarding the Exchange of Substance Use Disorder Treatment Records, Connecting Michigan for Health Legal Summit, Lansing, MI (June 3, 2019)

Mental Health Parity at 10, ASLME Health Law Professors Conference, Loyola University Chicago School of Law, Chicago, IL (June 5, 2019)

Overview of Sharing Behavioral Health Information in Michigan, Electronic Consent Management Service, (eCMS) Workshop Series: Positioning Michigan’s Healthcare Community for the Sharing of Behavioral Health Information, East Lansing, MI (July 25, 2019)

Integrating Physical and Behavioral Health Care in Michigan: State Laws and Regulations Impacting the Ability to Share Health Information among Treatment Providers, Michigan Legal Summit: Health Information and the Law: What’s Next?, Lansing, MI (June 5, 2018)

Medication Administration in Schools: Addressing Scope of Practice and Disability Law Tensions, ASLME Health Law Professors Conference, Case Western Reserve University School of Law, Cleveland, OH (June 8, 2018)

The Mental Health Parity and Addiction Equity Act (MHPAEA) Turns 10: Reflecting on Its Accomplishments and Continued Implementation Challenges, Seminar, Rutgers Institute for Health, Health Care Policy and Aging Research (October 4, 2018)

Case Study: Variety of Federal and State Legal Requirements for the Sharing of Patient Health Information among Treatment Providers in New Jersey, New and Nontraditional Actors in Privacy and Social Media Regulation Conference, Seton Hall Law Institute for Privacy Protection (November 3, 2017)

Integrating Behavioral and Physical Health Care in New Jersey: Legal Requirements for the Sharing of Patient Health Information among Treatment Providers, Michigan Health Information Network Operations Advisory Committee Privacy Working Group (October 11, 2017) (Webinar)

Mental Health Parity and Addiction Equity: Implementation Challenges and Opportunities, ASLME Health Law Professors’ Conference, Georgia State University College of Law (June 10, 2017)

Off-Label Medication Administration in Schools: Addressing Scope of Practice and Disability Law Tensions, Wiet Life Science Law Scholars Conference, Loyola University Chicago School of Law, Chicago, IL (October 13, 2017)

“Parity Primer,” The Puzzle of Parity: Implementing Behavioral Health Parity, Center for Health & Pharmaceutical Law & Policy, Seton Hall Law School, Newark, New Jersey (September 16, 2016) (supported by a grant from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation)

Facilitated Training of Veteran Mental Health Navigators, (April 25, 2016) (funded by a grant from the New Jersey Department of Health)

Legal  Barriers Related to the Sharing of Patient Health Information among Integrated Behavioral and Physical Health Providers, Public Health Information and Data Sharing: The Legal Framework Webinar, Centers for Disease Control’s Public Health Law Program and the Network for Public Health Law (August 18, 2016)

Legal  Barriers Related to the Sharing of Patient Health Information among Integrated Behavioral and Physical Health Providers, ASLME Health Law Professors Conference (June 3, 2016) (Boston, MA)

Parity and Addressing Barriers to Integrated Care, Annual Conference of the New Jersey Psychiatric Rehabilitation Association, Edison, NJ (November 17, 2016) (Keynote Address)

Optimizing Health Plan Choice, at Economics of Choice: A Health Insurance Rate Review Forum, Rutgers Center for State Health Policy (Sept. 19, 2014) (Panelist, with support provided by a grant awarded to the New Jersey Department of Banking & Insurance from the U.S. Department of Health & Human Services)

Federal and State Methodologies for Medical Loss Ratio Calculations, Rutgers Center for State Health Policy, Health Insurance Rate Review Forum: Loss Ratios (April 10, 2013)

Hot Topics in Legal Ethics for Health Care Attorneys, New Jersey Division of Law In-Service Training Day (Aug. 8, 2013)

Legal and Policy Challenges Presented by Prescription Drug Monitoring Programs, Public Health Law Fellows, National Attorneys General Training & Research Institute (Nov. 12, 2013)

Constitutional & Statutory Issues: The Affordable Care Act Media Briefing, Rutgers Center for State Health Policy and Seton Hall University School of Law, Center for Health & Pharmaceutical Law & Policy (March 20, 2012) (with John V. Jacobi, J.D. and Kate Greenwood, J.D.)

Exploring the Legal Hurdles of Coordinating Care, Conference "One Year Later: The NJ Medicaid Accountable Care Organization Demonstration Project", organized by PICO New Jersey (August 2, 2012) (Elizabeth Litten, Renee Steinhagen, and Naomi Wyatt)

Legal Ethics for the Health Care Attorneys, In-House Counsel Constituency Group, New Jersey Hospital Association (December 11,2012) (Kim Ringler, Esq.)

Legal Ethics for the Health Care Lawyer, New Jersey Attorney General Advocacy Institute (June 28, 2012) (Kim Ringler, DAG)

Legal Ethics for the Health Care Lawyer, New Jersey Attorney General Advocacy Institute (February 27, 2012) (with Kim Ringler, Esq.)

Exploring Defenses to Section 1983 Litigation: Absolute/Qualified Immunity and Beyond, New Jersey Attorney General's Advocacy Institute (June 27, 2011 and June 30, 2011)

Legal Ethics for the Health Care Lawyer, New Jersey Bar Association’s 2011 Health & Hospital Law Symposium (Nov. 11, 2011) (Kim Ringler, Esq.)

The Role of Competition in Integrated Delivery: ACO’s, Federal and State Antitrust Law, the State Action Doctrine, and Clinical Integration, Seton Hall Law Review Symposium (Oct. 28, 2011)