The Senate confirmed Seema Verma as administrator of the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services on March 13 by a largely party line vote of 55-43.
Ms. Verma’s confirmation comes as Republicans begin their efforts to repeal and replace the Affordable Care Act. During the March 13 debate, Senate Finance Committee Chairman Orrin Hatch (R-Utah) reiterated his support for Ms. Verma, saying she will be a needed leader during the transition from the ACA.
Seema Verma
Senate Finance Committee Ranking Member Ron Wyden (D-Ore.) continued to criticize Ms. Verma during the debate, stressing that she has presented no clear vision of her plans as the next CMS administrator.
“Ms. Verma gave the Finance Committee and the public virtually nothing to go by in terms of how she’d approach this job,” Sen. Wyden said during floor debate. “If confirmed, she’d be one of the top officials to implement Trumpcare, a bill that would raid Medicaid, slash Medicare, and kick millions of Americans off their health care... So I’m unable to support this nomination.”
A relative unknown before her nomination, Ms. Verma spent 20 years designing policy projects involving Medicaid, including HIP, the nation’s first consumer-directed Medicaid program under Indiana Governor Mitch Daniels and then-Gov. Mike Pence’s HIP 2.0 waiver proposal.
Prior to consulting, Ms. Verma served as vice president of planning for the Health and Hospital Corporation of Marion County (Ind.) and as a director with the Association of State and Territorial Health Officials in Washington.
During her confirmation hearing, senators raised concerns about Ms. Verma’s past consulting agreements with states while working for Hewlett Packard, a company that had financial interests in the health programs she designed. But Ms. Verma argued that she never negotiated on behalf of Hewlett Packard, and that the work she conducted for the states did not overlap with work she completed for Hewlett Packard. Her company sought an ethics opinion to ensure the arrangement was not problematic, she said.
The Association for Community Affiliated Plans (ACAP) pledged to work with Ms. Verma as the Trump administration works toward changing how Medicaid is financed and administered. ACAP represents nonprofit safety net health plans in 28 states that serve patients enrolled in Medicaid, Medicare, the Children’s Health Insurance Program, marketplaces, and other publicly supported health programs.
“Flexibility is one of the great things about the Medicaid program today – this very flexibility is what has allowed the changes Ms. Verma helped to effect in Indiana,” ACAP CEO Margaret A. Murray said in a statement. “We look forward to working with Ms. Verma on pathways to refine the program while maintaining its guarantee of coverage for all eligible individuals, improving transparency and actuarial soundness in rate-setting, and assuring access to needed care and services.”
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