Kaye Pestaina

Kaye Pestaina is a vice president at KFF, where she directs its Program on Patient and Consumer Protections. She has more than 25 years of experience in health law and policy, as well as employee benefits law.

Prior to joining KFF, Pestaina was a principal in Mercer’s Government and Human Services Consulting (GHSC) Group, and before that, at Mercer’s Law and Policy Group (L&P). At GHSC she worked with government clients to design and implement healthcare programs, at L&P she served as a national legal and regulatory expert for private and public employer health plan clients.

Prior to joining Mercer, Pestaina worked in senior roles in the federal government implementing provisions of the Affordable Care Act that impact private health coverage—first at the Center for Consumer Information and Insurance Oversight at the Department of Health and Human Services, and then in the Healthcare and Insurance office at the Office of Personnel Management.

Pestaina also served as vice president at the Segal Company, where she worked with public sector, union, and corporate clients on healthcare compliance matters, and was an attorney in the Employee Benefits Security Administration at the U.S. Labor Department. Prior to that she enforced provisions of the Americans with Disabilities Act in the Civil Rights Division of the U.S. Department of Justice and was a litigation associate at DLA Piper.

Pestaina received her bachelor’s degree from Cornell University and her Juris Doctor from Harvard Law School.