Senate approves CMS Administrator Nominee

Modern Healthcare
Jessie Hellmann
 
The U.S. Senate confirmed President Joe Biden's nominee to lead CMS Tuesday, giving the agency a permanent leader at a key moment for the administration.
 
Chiquita Brooks-LaSure, who worked for the Obama administration and helped implement the Affordable Care Act, will oversee the agency's efforts to expand the healthcare law, set the overall policy agenda for Medicare, Medicaid and the Children's Health Insurance Program (CHIP).
 
The nomination was approved 55-44 with four Republicans voting yes: Sen. Roy Blunt (R-Mo.), Susan Collins of Maine, Richard Burr (R-N.C.), Jerry Moran (R-Kan.) and Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska.).
 
Before being nominated to lead CMS, she was a consultant for Manatt Health and previously worked for the House Ways & Means Committee, where she helped draft the ACA.
 
"This is clearly one of the most important healthcare jobs in America," Senate Finance Committee Chairman Ron Wyden (D-Ore.) said Monday.
 
"Ms. Brooks-LaSure brings decades of health policy experience to CMS and I think it would be fair to say she has worked on healthcare from just about every angle short of scrubbing into the operating room itself."
 
Brooks LaSure's nomination became controversial among Senate Republicans after CMS reversed the Trump administration's decision to approve a Medicaid wavier for an unprecedented 10-year period, arguing it did not give enough time for public comment...

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