CMS to Reorganize, Add Deputy Administrator

According to an internal agency memo, CMS is planning to
reorganize and add a top administrator position.

The email from acting Administrator Charlene Frizzera, published
in
The Hill’s Feb. 17 blog, lays out a plan for a
structural realignment of CMS’ component centers that would
be its first reorganization in 10 years.

In addition, the email said, Marilyn Tavenner has been tapped as
the new principal deputy administrator, the second highest-ranking
official in the agency. Tavenner was previously secretary of health
and human resources in the administration of then-Virginia Gov. Tim
Kaine (D).

The reorganization also would establish an Office of External
Affairs and Beneficiary Services and four centers led by deputy
administrators to oversee Medicare, Medicaid and the Children’s
Health Insurance Program: Center for Medicare; Center for Medicaid,
CHIP and Survey & Certification; Center for Program Integrity;
and Center for Strategic Planning.

Frizzera said the new Center for Medicare combines Medicare
fee-for-service, managed care and the prescription drug benefit.
The center will report directly to the CMS administrator and be led
by Deputy Administrator Jonathan Blum and two deputy center
directors. Existing groups/staffs of the current Center for
Medicare Management and Center for Drug and Health Plan Choice will
be realigned intact under the new center.

The memo also said that Peter Budetti, former counsel to the
House Energy and Commerce Subcommittee on Health and the
Environment, will join CMS as the deputy administrator at the
Center for Program Integrity. That center realigns the Medicare
Program Integrity Group of the Office of Financial Management and
the Medicaid Integrity Group of the Center for Medicaid and State
Operations.

Frizzera said that HHS Secretary Kathleen Sebelius has not yet
signed off on the plan, but she expects approval within the next 60
days.

Frizzera also wrote to CMS staff that she will continue in the
role of acting administrator and COO of the massive agency, which
provides health insurance to 98 million people, pays 1.2 billion
claims a year and has an annual budget of more than $700
billion.

Shortly before President Obama’s State of the Union address,
rumors were flying across Capitol Hill that he was ready to name a
new permanent agency head, but the rumors turned out to be just
that. According to recent press reports, Sebelius said CMS has been
interviewing to fill the job.

The agency has been without a permanent administrator since Mark
McClellan left the post in October 2006.