Medicare agency adds ex-Va. official, plans reorganization - The Hill's Blog Briefing Room

Virginia's Marilyn Tavenner Joins CMS...

Medicare agency adds ex-Va. official, plans reorganization
By Jeffrey Young
The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) has tapped a former top health official from Virginia for a senior leadership position and plans its first structural reorganization in nearly 10 years.

Marilyn Tavenner, who was secretary of Health and Human Resources in the administration of then-Virginia Gov. Tim Kaine (D) from 2006 until Gov. Bob McDonnell (R) took office this year, has joined CMS as principal deputy administrator, a newly created position that makes Tavenner the second-ranking official at the agency -- and the Obama administration's most senior appointment to the agency.

Prior to her tenure under Kaine, Tavenner was a nurse and an executive at the Hospital Corporation of America, where she ran two facilities in suburban Richmond and served as chairwoman of the Virginia Hospital Association and a trustee at the American Hospital Association.

Obama, however, has yet to nominate anyone to serve as administrator of CMS. The agency has not had a confirmed chief executive since Mark McClellan resigned in Oct. 2006. President George W. Bush's last nominee for CMS administrator, Kerry Weems, served on the job in an acting capacity for more than a year but the Senate never took action on his confirmation. Since Obama took office, CMS's chief operating officer Charlene Frizzera, a veteran civil servant, has been acting administrator.

Medicare agency adds ex-Va. official, plans reorganization - The Hill's Blog Briefing Room