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Brian Neale has been tapped by the Donald Trump administration as the new director of the Center for Medicaid and CHIP Services, according to the agency's former director Cindy Mann. He will report to Seema Verma, Trump's pick for CMS administrator once she is confirmed by the Senate. Neale didn't immediately return a request for comment on his new appointment. Neale most recently was ‎executive director at the United States Congress Joint Economic Committee and served as healthcare policy director for Vice President Mike Pence when he was Indiana governor. He worked with both Verma and Pence to create the Healthy Indiana Plan, the state's Medicaid expansion plan also known as known as HIP 2.0. (Dickson, 3/1)

The Senate Finance Committee will vote again Thursday on President Donald Trump’s nominee to head U.S. health programs for the elderly, poor, and disabled after an initial tally resulted in a tie. Members present Wednesday voted 9 to 9 on whether to send the nomination of Seema Verma to the full Senate for confirmation as head of the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services. The Senate Finance Committee will reconvene on Thursday, said Chairman Orrin Hatch, a Republican from Utah. (Greifeld, 3/1)