Toby S. Edelman is an attorney in the Washington, DC office of the Center for Medicare Advocacy. She has advocated on behalf of nursing home residents since 1977. From 1977 through 1999 she was a staff attorney with the National Senior Citizens Law Center in Washington, DC, where she was involved in the development and drafting of the nursing home reform law that was enacted by Congress in December 1987.  Active in the law’s implementation, she represented residents in a variety of task forces and workgroups convened by the Health Care Financing Administration to address survey issues and enforcement of federal standards for nursing facilities. 

Ms. Edelman was the lead attorney for plaintiffs in Valdivia v. California Department of Health Services, the case in which a statewide class of nursing facility residents successfully challenged California's refusal to implement the federal nursing home reform law in October 1990. From 1997-1998, she coordinated a study, supported by the Commonwealth Fund of New York, regarding implementation of the enforcement provisions of the nursing home reform law at the federal level and in five states. 

Ms. Edelman is a member of the Board of Directors of the National Citizens Coalition for Nursing Home Reform, a national advocacy organization that works to improve quality of care and quality of life for nursing facility residents.

Ms. Edelman received an A.B. from Barnard College, an Ed.M. from the Harvard Graduate School of Education, and a J.D. from the Georgetown University Law Center.