Berwick To Head CMS Without Senate Confirmation (updated)
July 7th, 2010
by
Chris Fleming
|
President Obama will bypass the Senate and use a recess appointment today to install Don Berwick as head of the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services. Such an appointment, made while the Senate is not in session, will enable Berwick to assume the full powers of CMS administrator without Senate confirmation but will last only until the end of the next Congress, in late 2011.
On the White House Blog, Obama’s Communications Director Dan Pfeiffer explained the administration’s reasoning:
In April, President Obama nominated Dr. Donald Berwick to serve as Administrator of the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS). Many Republicans in Congress have made it clear in recent weeks that they were going to stall the nomination as long as they could, solely to score political points. But with the agency facing new responsibilities to protect seniors’ care under the Affordable Care Act, there’s no time to waste with Washington game-playing.
Berwick, the CEO of the Institute for Healthcare Improvement in Boston, has received support from many leading healthcare stakeholder groups, as well as former CMS administrators who served under Republicans such as Mark McClellan and Tom Scully. However, most congressional Republicans have vehemently opposed Berwick, and not surprisingly they did not buy Pfeiffer’s reasoning. ”Democrats haven’t scheduled so much as a committee hearing for Donald Berwick but the mere possibility of allowing the American people the opportunity to hear what he intends to do with their health care is evidently reason enough for this administration to sneak him through without public scrutiny,” said Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.).
Check out this earlier Health Affairs Blog post for a list of Berwick’s writings in Health Affairs (all free access). And for more on the challenges Berwick will face as head of CMS, the July issue of Health Affairs, released today, features multiple articles on health reform implementation. In the issue’s Entry Point article (also free access), Health Affairs founding editor John Iglehart looks at the debate over Berwick and describes the leadership team that will help him run CMS.
In addition, Health Affairs Blog recently hosted a roundtable on CMS and health reform. Implementing health reform was also the subject of the June issue of Health Affairs and a Washington D.C. briefing on the issue.
** Update: Saying “it’s unfortunate that at a time when our nation is facing enormous challenges, many in Congress have decided to delay critical nominations for political purposes,” President Obama announced recess appointments this morning for Berwick and two others.
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