Obama to Nominate Berwick as CMS Chief

WASHINGTON — President Obama plans to nominate Donald M.
Berwick, MD, MPP, FRCP, to head the Centers for Medicare and
Medicaid Services, an administration official told
CNN.

Berwick is an authority on health care quality and improvement,
according to his biography. A clinical professor of pediatrics and
health care policy at Harvard Medical School, Berwick is also
president and CEO of the Cambridge, Mass.-based Institute for
Healthcare Improvement, a not-for-profit organization that promotes
the improvement of health care.

He has served as vice chair of the U.S. Preventive Services Task
Force, a member of the board of trustees of the American Hospital
Association and chair of the National Advisory Council of the
Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality.

An interview with
Kaiser Health News in November described Berwick as “a
big promoter of efforts to reduce hospital infections, revamp the
Medicare payment system to produce better patient outcomes and make
public information on hospitals and doctor performance.”

If confirmed by the Senate, Berwick would be charged with
carrying out a number of provisions in the nation’s sweeping health
reform overhaul, including an expansion of Medicaid to an
additional 16 million people and cutting almost a half-trillion
dollars from Medicare over the next 10 years.

“This is always a big job,” Iowa Sen. Chuck Grassley, the
ranking Republican on the Senate Finance Committee, said in a
statement, “but the administration of health care reform, which
includes implementing the hundreds of billions of dollars in
Medicare cuts and the biggest expansion of Medicaid in its history,
will make it more challenging than ever. The Finance Committee
vetting will need to explore the nominee’s preparedness for the
enormous challenges that face the agency.”

Berwick’s name had been floated in rumors surrounding CMS’
vacant top spot
earlier this year. The behemoth agency has been without a permanent
administrator since Mark McClellan stepped down in October
2006.