By Louise Radnofsky
WASHINGTON--Marilyn Tavenner, head of the U.S. agency that
oversees the federal health law along with Medicare and Medicaid,
said Friday she would step down in February, leaving a temporary
administrator in the post until the White House and Senate
Republicans can agree on a successor.
Ms. Tavenner became the first permanent head of the Centers for
Medicare and Medicaid Services in more than six years when she was
confirmed in 2013--after working more than a year in an acting
capacity. She continued to enjoy Republican support through the
rollout of the health law's insurance exchanges.
Andy Slavitt, a former top executive at UnitedHealth Group who
is now the second-highest-ranking official in the agency, will take
over as acting administrator, agency officials said.
Both the Obama administration and the George W. Bush
administration have faced problems getting CMS heads confirmed. A
fresh confirmation process could be turbulent because many
Republicans in the GOP-controlled Senate are pressing for major
changes to the 2010 health law.
In a warning shot to the White House, Senate Majority Leader
Mitch McConnell (R., Ky.) said in a statement that "we now call on
the president to nominate someone whose sole focus will be to look
out for our nation's seniors and the many vulnerable Americans who
use these programs, and not distract them from that task with
Obamacare."
White House spokeswoman Jessica Santillo said President Barack
Obama wouldn't immediately announce a nominee to succeed Ms.
Tavenner. "We are confident, when we have a nominee, he or she will
be worthy of quick consideration and bipartisan support," she
said.
Mr. Slavitt, 48 years old, was group executive vice president at
Optum, a unit of insurer UnitedHealth and the parent company of
Quality Software Services Inc., when the contractor was picked to
lead the cleanup effort when HealthCare.gov was crippled by
technology troubles. He was brought in-house in 2014 as one of the
first hires of new Health and Human Services Secretary Sylvia
Mathews Burwell, and quickly took on preparations for the second
main open-enrollment period for the health law, which started
relatively smoothly in mid-November.
Ms. Tavenner had been Virginia's health secretary before joining
CMS in 2010. She started her career as a nurse and rose to
executive positions in the for-profit hospital sector.
At the time of her nomination, she was considered among the
least-controversial candidates to succeed Don Berwick, who never
got Senate confirmation and remained acting administrator for more
than a year. News of Ms. Tavenner's decision to leave was first
reported by the Huffington Post.
Ms. Tavenner, 63, didn't give a reason for her departure in a
farewell email to CMS staff. She listed a series of agency
accomplishments under her tenure, including slowing the growth of
health-care costs, now at a historically low rate. She also praised
the current operation of the health law's online insurance
exchanges. But problems with the law's rollout have continued to
dog her, including her overestimating the number of people who had
coverage through the exchanges in congressional testimony last
fall.
She wasn't immediately available for an interview on Friday.
Ms. Tavenner recently has faced scrutiny over Medicare
operations. A Wall Street Journal article last month highlighted
her intervention in Medicare fraud investigations after being
contacted by elected officials.
In one case, Ms. Tavenner instructed deputies to restore blocked
Medicare payments to Houston's Riverside General Hospital in 2012,
even as the agency was cooperating in a criminal investigation of
the facility, according to former investigators and documents
obtained by the Journal. The hospital's top executive was indicted
in a $158 million fraud scheme two months following the order, and
the chief executive was convicted in October.
In a statement at the time, Ms. Tavenner said the Riverside
episode "reflected the tension between fraud prevention and access
to care." She also said that she was unaware of the pending
indictments.
Tom Scully, who served as the CMS administrator for three years
during the George W. Bush administration, said Ms. Tavenner had
been thinking about leaving for around six months. "Five years is a
long time, and I can't imagine anyone doing that job for five
years," he said.
Christopher S. Stewart contributed to this article.
Write to Louise Radnofsky at louise.radnofsky@wsj.com
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