WASHINGTON — President Obama nominated Gov. Kathleen Sebelius, D-Kan., as Health and Human Services secretary March 2, and named Nancy-Ann Min DeParle, former HCFA administrator, to lead the White Office of Health Reform.
If confirmed by the Senate, Sebelius will head the massive HHS department, which includes the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, the Food and Drug Administration and the National Institutes of Health. She will also work with DeParle on the administration's health care reform effort.
The announcement comes a month after former Sen. Tom Daschle, D-S.D., withdrew his nomination to head HHS following an admission he had failed to pay $128,000 in back taxes. Daschle also stepped away from the newly created White House office, which would have given him a dual role in directing the push for reform.
In announcing his new choices, Obama said health reform will require a commitment "that focuses not on Democratic ideas or Republican ideas, but on ideas that work to rein in costs, expand access and improve the quality of health care for the American people." As a Democratic governor in a Republican state, the president said, Sebelius "has forged a reputation for bipartisan problem-solving in her own right."
Sebelius, who has served as Kansas governor since 2003, also served as the state's Insurance Commissioner from 1994 to 2002.
The announcement labeled DeParle "one of the nation's leading experts on health care and regulatory issues." In her new role, DeParle will act as a counselor to the president and is expected to coordinate White House reform efforts with Congress.
DeParle was administrator of the Health Care Financing Administration (now the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services) from 1997 to 2000. She had previously been associate director for health and personnel in the White House Office of Management and Budget and was commissioner of the Department of Human Services in Tennessee. In addition, she has served on the Medicare Payment Advisory Commission (MedPAC), which advises Congress on Medicare reimbursement issues.
During DeParle's term at CMS, the agency established new codes for oxygen concentrators, added supplier standards and began an effort to deal with Medicare fraud and abuse in proposals for a provider surety bond and additional site visits.
DeParle also supported the DMEPOS competitive bidding initiative, saying that the first demonstration in Polk County, Fla., achieved Medicare savings without compromising patient access to quality care. "Competition helps Medicare beneficiaries receive quality medical supplies at fair market prices," she said at the time. "Old laws have forced Medicare to spend more for equipment than market prices or common sense should allow."
In announcing the winners of the Polk County project, which resulted in reimbursement reductions of 13 to 31 percent in five product categories, DeParle said the results "show that competition can work for Medicare beneficiaries."
While it didn't drill down to HME issues, Obama's 2010 budget proposal set aside a $634 billion pool to help finance a health care overhaul, funded in part from changes to Medicare and Medicaid.
Obama has called the reform effort crucial to getting the nation's economy back on track. "We must realize that fixing what's wrong with our health care system is no longer just a moral imperative, but a fiscal imperative," the president said in announcing yesterday's appointments.
On Thursday, the White House will hold a health care summit including members of Congress and stakeholders from the health care and insurance industries to discuss the issue.
According to a report from CQ Today, Senate Finance Committee Chairman Max Baucus said he hopes to have a reform bill on the floor by June or July. Baucus also said the health care legislation would be fully offset. "It will not add to the deficit," Baucus told reporters. "It will be paid for."