Mark R. Taylor

Bio

Mark earned his Bachelor of Arts degree in government from Georgetown University in Washington D.C. in 1993 and received his Juris Doctorate from the University of Montana in 1997. 

Mark has extensive experience in a wide variety of business, legislative, and regulatory matters, representing client interests before the Montana Legislature, and Montana’s State and Federal Courts. 

In the health care arena, Mark is head of the firm’s Health Care Group and has served as general counsel to MHA…An Association of Montana Health Care Providers (formerly known as the Montana Hospital Association) for 10-plus years.  In addition, he has served as counsel to more than a dozen hospitals across Montana on various matters.  Mark is well-recognized in the hospital regulatory arena in Montana, including having been published in several hospital-related trade publications.

Mark was born and raised in Central Montana (near Lewistown), where he and his family continue to operate their family farm and ranch.  He enjoys spending time with his wife, Elaine, and their two daughters, Morgan and Raegan.  Mark also enjoys hunting, golfing, fishing, and traveling. 

Representative Matters

Examples of Mark's legislative efforts on behalf of various health care clients include: 
1. Bed Taxes - Successfully lobbied the enactment of a “hospital utilization fee” to be deposited in a special revenue account and use to boost payments to hospitals using federal matching dollars.  This fee has been successfully extended every session since enactment.  Mark also assisted in increasing the bed tax for nursing home facilities for the same purposes.

2. Tax Credits - Successfully enacted legislation which allows health care professions working in
certain areas of Montana to exempt up to $5,000 a year in student loan repayments made on their
behalf by a health care facility from their taxable income.  Successfully enacted legislation which
allows contractors to claim a tax credit if they crush glass to be used for recycling purposes.  In
conjunction with others, Mark also successfully restored the charitable endowment tax
credit for planned gifts.  
  
3. Critical Access Hospitals - Successfully enacted legislation which brought Montana’s hospital
licensure laws into compliance with the federal Balanced Budget Act of 1997.

4. Surgery Centers - Successfully enacted legislation which capped the length-of-recover time at ambulatory surgery centers at less than 24 hours.
5. Peer Review - Successfully revised state statutes to ensure that peer review activities are
protected by confidentiality.

6. Nurse licensure - Successfully enacted legislation authorizing the Board of Nursing to grant
temporary licenses to Canadian RNs.

7. WWAMI Program - Successfully avoided attempts to eliminate state spending for the federal program that subsidizes education costs for medical students from Montana.

8. CRNA Supervision - Successfully opposed efforts to require supervision of CRNAs versus practicing independently and collaboratively. 

9. Punitive damages - Successfully enacted legislation placing a punitive damages cap of $10
million or 3% of a defendant’s net worth, whichever is lesser.

10. Medical Malpractice – In conjunction with the Montana Medical Association and other
interested parties, successfully enacted a package (in 2005) of medical liability bills aimed at
curbing the dramatic increases in medical liability insurance costs. A second package of bills
was passed by the Montana Legislature in 2011, although all but one were not enacted into
law.  

11. Physician Liens - Successfully revised Montana law to prohibit attorneys from using the
“common fund” theory to collect a portion of their attorney fees from the medical provider’s
share of a settlement.

12. Prompt Pay - Successfully amended state law to require insurance companies to pay health claims within 30 days.

13. Reciprocal Insurers - Successfully lobbied changes to allow eight or more employers with a
total of more than 500 employees to organize a domestic reciprocal insurer to provide workers’
compensation insurance.

14. Specialty Hospitals – Drafted and successfully enacted a moratorium under Montana law
prohibiting the licensure of specialty hospitals.  This moratorium was successfully extended.

15.  COPA – Successfully amended state law to place a ten year sunset on certificates of public
advantage.

16. Air ambulance – Drafted and successfully enacted legislation authorizing the creation of air
ambulance membership programs in Montana.

17. Health Information Technology – Successfully authorized the use of $35 M in federal Medicaid funds to implement health information technology requirements.

18.  Managed Care – Drafted and successfully enacted legislation strengthening Montana’s managed care laws.

Examples of Mark’s legislative efforts on behalf of other clients include:
1. Franchise Taxes - Successfully represented his clients in opposing a franchise tax legislation designed to unfairly tax large corporations who desire to do business in Montana.

2. Property Taxes - Successfully represented commercial and industrial clients on proposals to reduce unfair property tax burdens (see in particular work performed reducing the business equipment tax).

3. Beer Taxes - BKBH has represented Anheuser-Busch in the Montana Legislature since 1983, where Mr. Taylor and Mr. Browning have successfully opposed all legislative efforts to increase beer taxes.  Mr. Taylor has been a principal lobbyist for Anheuser-Busch since 1999.

4.  Driver License Fees - Successfully enacted an increase in driver’s license fees for renewals
from $4 to $5 per year and for duplicates from $5 to $10 in order to fund the State’s obligation to
the Highway Patrol Officers’ Retirement System.

5. Retirement Age - Successfully enacted legislation which allowed highway patrol officers to
retire after 20 years of service regardless of age.   Successfully enacted legislation which reduced
the retirement age for district court judges.

6. Guaranteed Annual Benefit Adjustment (GABA) - Involved in a coalition which (1) increased
the ABA from 1.5 to 3.0 percent; (2) reduced the GABA waiting period from 3 years to 1 year;
and (3) amended the GABA to allow a person who retired from one Title 19 system to receive
their GABA benefit while they continue to work.  

7. Voluntary Employee Benefit Accounts (VEBA) - Successfully enacted legislation which allows state employees to transfer unused sick leave to individual health care accounts without any tax ramifications.

8. Exemption for High Risk Drivers - Successfully lobbied enactment of a law to allow low risk drivers to exclude from their policies high risk drivers from their families who would not be allowed to drive insured's automobile.

9. Highway Safety – Successfully lobbied the enactment of a law requiring the use of alcohol ignition interlock devices in Montana for second or subsequent DUI offenders. In conjunction with the Attorney General’s Office and other interested parties, successfully enacted legislation authorizing the creation of the 24/7 Sobriety Program to reduce drunken driving related offenses.  Successfully enacted multiple pieces of public safety legislation, including Blue Alert and the Children’s Primary Seatbelt law.

10. Advertising Bans - Successfully lobbied against all efforts to restrict alcohol advertising in Montana by billboards or other signage.

11. MEPA - Successfully lobbied changes to the Montana Environmental Policy Act by defining project costs for EIS determination purposes and by requiring that MEPA be viewed and implemented procedurally versus substantive in nature. 

12. Recycling - Successfully opposed efforts to enact a “bottle bill” which would have required
Purchasers of bottles and cans to pay a deposit.

13. Check Fees/Credit Information - Drafted and successfully enacted legislation making Montana’s bad check fee statute uniform with all other states. Also, in conjunction with several interested parties, defeated multiple pieces of legislation aimed at limiting employers’ rights to review potential employee credit information.

Professional Experience

BROWNING, KALECZYC, BERRY & HOVEN, P.C.
Helena, Montana
Senior Partner, 1997 - Present

CEDERBERG, SHOTT & SMITH, P.C.
Missoula, Montana
Legal Intern, 1995 - 1997

CROWLEY, HAUGHEY, HANSON, TOOLE & DIETRICH, P.L.L.P.,
Helena, Montana
Legal Intern, 1996

U.S. Senator Conrad Burns
Washington D.C.
Legislative Intern, 1990

Clients

Health-Care Clients:
•Barrett Hospital & Healthcare (Dillon, MT)
•Benefis Health System (Great Falls, MT)
•Big Sandy Medical Center (Big Sandy, MT)
•Garfield County Health Center (Jordan, MT)
•Glacier County Medical Center (Cut Bank, MT)
•Glendive Medical Center (Glendive, MT)
•Liberty County Hospital (Chester, MT)
•MHA … An Association of Montana Health Care Providers (Helena, MT)
•MHA Ventures, Inc. (Helena, MT)
•Madison Valley Hospital (Ennis, MT)
•McCone County Health Center (Circle, MT)
•Medtronic, Inc. (Minneapolis, MN)
•Montana Association of Nurse Anesthetists (Helena, MT)
•Montana Independent Health Alliance (Missoula, MT)
•Northcentral Montana Healthcare Alliance (Great Falls, MT)
•Northern Montana Hospital (Havre, MT)
•Sidney Health Center (Sidney, MT)
•St. Luke Community Hospital (Ronan, MT)
•Stillwater Community Hospital (Columbus, MT)
•Utah Medical Insurance Association (Salt Lake City, UT)
•VHA Mountain States (Denver, CO)
•Yellowstone Insurance Exchange, RRG (Post Falls, ID)

Other Representative Clients:
•3M Corporation (St. Paul, MN)
•Anheuser-Busch Companies (St. Louis, MO)
•Association of Montana Troopers (Helena, MT)
•Consumer Data Industry Association (Washington DC)
•Deloitte Consulting (Sacramento, CA)
•Intoximeters, Inc. (St. Louis, MO)
•Montana Contractors Association (Helena, MT)
•Montana Judges Association (Helena, MT)
•Montana Meth Project (Missoula, MT)
•National Restaurant Association (Washington D.C.)
•Verification Solutions (Kingston, GA)