Government Reassigns Suspended CMS Medical Director

BALTIMORE–Sean Tunis, the CMS chief medical officer who was
suspended earlier this year for falsifying documents, has been
reassigned to the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality as a
biomedical research scientist.

Last week, the HHS Office of Inspector General put Tunis on a
list of individuals and businesses excluded from participating in
Medicare, Medicaid and all federal health care programs. In April,
he was placed on administrative leave after the Maryland Board of
Physicians charged him with altering documents to show he had
completed continuing medical education credits, which are required
to maintain a medical license in the state.

Tunis, who also was director of the Office of Clinical Standards
and Quality, admitted he had attempted to reproduce lost records of
credits he legitimately earned, and agreed to a one-year suspension
of his medical license and a $20,000 fine. He also resigned from
Mercy Medical Center in Baltimore, where he worked part-time as an
emergency physician.

In his new position with AHRQ, Tunis will work on projects
related to the education of health care researchers, and will no
longer be involved in federal medical decisions, according to an
AHRQ spokesperson. Under a consent order, he also must complete an
ethics course and 35 hours of CME.

“I regret having made mistakes in handling my [continuing
education] records, but I am now pleased to be moving forward into
a new phase of my career,” Tunis told the Associated Press.

Barry Straub of CMS’ Region IX in San Francisco has been serving
as acting CMS chief medical officer since Tunis’ departure and has
also taken his place as acting director of clinical standards and
quality.