Medicare Chief Resigns With ‘Mixed Emotions’

Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) Administrator Marilyn Tavenner is leaving the agency at the end of February, the Medicare chief announced Friday.

“Tavenner wrote in an email that she left with ‘sadness and mixed emotions’ but that she has ‘great pride and joy knowing all that we have accomplished together since I came on board five years ago in February of 2010,’” Politico reports in a recent article.

Three years after first joining the agency Tavenner was confirmed by the Senate 91-7 in mid-2013. She assumed her leadership role after the departure of Dr. Donald Berwick, who stepped down as administrator Dec. 2, 2011.

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CMS has been integral in the creation and administration of Accountable Care Organizations (ACOs). More than two years after CMS launched its Pioneer ACO model, the initiative is now down to about 60% of its original participants following the exit of three health systems in September 2014.

Principal Deputy Administrator Andy Slavitt will be the acting administrator of CMS, Health and Human Services Secretary Sylvia Mathews Burwell said in a separate announcement.

Burwell spoke highly of Tavenner in her announcement, saying that she will be remembered for her role in Obamacare’s launch.

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“It’s a measure of her tenacity and dedication that after the tough initial rollout of HealthCare.gov, she helped right the ship, bringing aboard a systems integrator and overseeing an overhaul of the website,” Burwell wrote.

Read the Politico article here.

Written by Cassandra Dowell