Morning Briefing
Summaries of health policy coverage from major news organizations
Senate Confirms Seema Verma To Head Agency Overseeing Medicare And Medicaid
The Senate on Monday confirmed Seema Verma, a health policy expert from Indiana, to lead efforts by the Trump administration to transform Medicaid and upend the Affordable Care Act. (Pear, 3/13)
Indiana health care consultant Seema Verma, a protégé of Vice President Mike Pence, was approved by a 55-43 vote, largely along party lines. She'll head the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, a $1 trillion agency that oversees health insurance programs for more than 130 million people, from elderly nursing home residents to newborns. It's part of the Department of Health and Human Services. (Alonso-Zaldivar, 3/13)
Verma will take the helm with a clear goal of making it easier for states to try new approaches in aiding low-income and disabled people. Democrats criticized Verma's positions on the future direction of Medicaid. The giant state-federal health program served 68.6 million people in December, according to CMS — more than 20 percent of the U.S. population. Verma gained the support of only three Democrats: Joe Donnelly of Indiana, Heidi Heitkamp of North Dakota and Joe Manchin III of West Virginia, as well as Angus King, an independent who caucuses with the minority party. (Young, 3/13)
Verma is believed to have more Medicaid experience than any other administrator in the agency's history, having helped craft expansion plans in Indiana, Iowa, Kentucky and Ohio. Verma, and Brian Neale, the newly selected director of the Center for Medicaid and CHIP Services are expected to push Medicaid in a more conservative direction in which states could apply for and receive waivers to impose work search requirements and lifetime caps on Medicaid enrollment. The Obama administration refused to implement such proposals. (Dickson, 3/13)
Ms. Verma, a health policy consultant, made a name for herself as the architect of Indiana’s Medicaid expansion program under then-Gov. Mike Pence, which that state administered through a federal waiver. Ms. Verma struck a deal with the Obama administration allowing Indiana to charge enrollees under the expansion monthly premiums. (Hackman, 3/13)
