B.A., Reed College; J.D., University of the District of Columbia David A. Clarke School of Law
Wayne Turner is a senior attorney in the National Health Law Program’s (NHeLP) Washington, DC office, where he focuses on consumer protections in Medicaid managed care, the Early and Periodic Screening, Diagnosis and Treatment (EPSDT) program, eligibility using Modified Adjusted Gross Income (MAGI) methodologies, and Medicaid prescription drug coverage. Wayne is the principal author of several NHeLP guides for advocates and legal services providers, including The Advocate’s Guide to MAGI and The Guide to Oversight, Accountability in Medicaid Managed Care; as well as NHeLP’s HIV/AIDS discrimination complaint filed with the HHS Office for Civil Rights. He has presented on non-discrimination protections at the US Conference on AIDS, Lavender Law, Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services Quality Conference, and American Health Lawyers Association conferences. He also conducted trainings on rules for determining financial eligibility for Medicaid and other insurance affordability programs for Administrative Law Judges and health care navigators and assisters through the HHS Center for Consumer Information and Insurance Oversight.
Wayne came to NHeLP from the DC Appleseed Center for Law and Justice, where he was a staff attorney. His project areas included Blue Cross Blue Shield reform, improving end of life care, and the Healthy Kids project of the DC Promise Neighborhood Initiative.
Before making the transition to a legal career, Wayne spent more than a decade as an HIV/AIDS and health care consumer advocate. He successfully lobbied to add consumer participation and accountability measures in the Ryan White Act reauthorization and organized numerous demonstrations and protests to draw attention to AIDS pandemic. Wayne also was the primary organizer of DC’s medical marijuana Initiative 59, which was approved by 69% of District voters in 1998.
Wayne earned his B.A. at Reed College and graduated magna cum laude from the University of the District of Columbia David A. Clarke School of Law. In law school, Wayne worked as a fellow in the HIV/AIDS Legal Clinic, where he prepared living wills and standby guardianships for clients with HIV/AIDS and their children.
Wayne is featured in the 2011 PBS documentary, Out in America, in which he describes the impact of the AIDS pandemic on the LGBT community through his personal account of serving as a caregiver and ultimately losing his life-partner Steve Michael, to the disease.