After the Senate voted 55-43 to approve her appointment, Seema Verma was sworn in as Administrator of the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services.
Verma is founder and president of healthcare policy consulting firm SVC Inc. She worked with Vice President Mike Pence to designing a Medicaid expansion for Indiana when Pence was governor of that state.
In her first action after being sworn in, Verma undertook a joint action with Health and Human Services Secretary Tom Price, MD, to co-sign a letter to the nation’s governors affirming the Department’s intent to work with states on improving the Medicaid program.
“Today, we commit to ushering in a new era for the federal and state Medicaid partnership where states have more freedom to design programs that meet the spectrum of diverse needs of their Medicaid population,” Price and Verma wrote. “We wish to empower all states to advance the next wave of innovative solutions to Medicaid’s challenges — solutions that focus on improving quality, accessibility, and outcomes in the most cost-effective manner.”
Where the HME industry is concerned, the American Association for Homecare released a statement that it “looks forward to engaging [Verma] and CMS staff to address a wide range of regulatory issues affecting HME suppliers and patients.”