Medicare Chief Announces Departure
AOPA
Description
Collection
Title:
Medicare Chief Announces Departure
Creator:
AOPA
Date:
12/4/2003
Text:
Medicare Chief Announces Departure on December 15, 2003
Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS)
Administrator Tom Scully formally announced his intention
to leave his post effective Dec. 15, 2003. Potential
replacements for Scully include Leslie Norwalk, acting
deputy administrator of CMS; Peter Urbanowicz, deputy
general counsel for the Department of Health and Human
Services (HHS); and William Winkenwerder, assistant
secretary of health at the Department of Defense.
During Scully's three-year tenure heading CMS, he achieved
a long list of accomplishments culminating in helping guide
passage of the most massive overhaul of the Medicare program
in 38 years. He is credited as being one of the driving
forces to inject competition into the Medicare program making
the program operate more like the private health care market.
He also championed a more open atmosphere in the
decision-making process seeking input from the provider
community on policy options.
AOPA Director of Legislative Affairs Walter Gorski said
of Scully, while we may not have always agreed with the
policy decisions made by Administrator Scully, his
management style allowed AOPA the opportunity to provide
its input on key policies.
Scully, a long-time Washington insider, served in various
roles during the first Bush Administration at the Office of
Management and Budget followed by a stint at the for-profit
hospital association, the Federation of American Hospitals,
before being hand-picked by Department of Health and Human
Services Secretary Tommy Thompson to head the Medicare
program. Scully is likely to remain active in Washington
and is exploring various other job opportunities with several
prominent law firms in the nation's capitol. Scully
indicated that his departure was purely voluntary and was
driven by his desire to spend more time with his wife and
three children.
It is unclear what will be the priorities of the next CMS
Administrator. However, because of continued efforts to
control rapidly escalating Medicare expenditures and
congressional efforts to expand the new Medicare drug
benefit, AOPA anticipates that Congress and CMS will
attempt to further reduce payment levels for O&P services
through a wide variety of means.
AOPA will be hard at work to ensure that the O&P voice is
represented during these discussions both at CMS and with
congressional leaders in order to protect the interests of
the O&P community and the patients who require these
services.
Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS)
Administrator Tom Scully formally announced his intention
to leave his post effective Dec. 15, 2003. Potential
replacements for Scully include Leslie Norwalk, acting
deputy administrator of CMS; Peter Urbanowicz, deputy
general counsel for the Department of Health and Human
Services (HHS); and William Winkenwerder, assistant
secretary of health at the Department of Defense.
During Scully's three-year tenure heading CMS, he achieved
a long list of accomplishments culminating in helping guide
passage of the most massive overhaul of the Medicare program
in 38 years. He is credited as being one of the driving
forces to inject competition into the Medicare program making
the program operate more like the private health care market.
He also championed a more open atmosphere in the
decision-making process seeking input from the provider
community on policy options.
AOPA Director of Legislative Affairs Walter Gorski said
of Scully, while we may not have always agreed with the
policy decisions made by Administrator Scully, his
management style allowed AOPA the opportunity to provide
its input on key policies.
Scully, a long-time Washington insider, served in various
roles during the first Bush Administration at the Office of
Management and Budget followed by a stint at the for-profit
hospital association, the Federation of American Hospitals,
before being hand-picked by Department of Health and Human
Services Secretary Tommy Thompson to head the Medicare
program. Scully is likely to remain active in Washington
and is exploring various other job opportunities with several
prominent law firms in the nation's capitol. Scully
indicated that his departure was purely voluntary and was
driven by his desire to spend more time with his wife and
three children.
It is unclear what will be the priorities of the next CMS
Administrator. However, because of continued efforts to
control rapidly escalating Medicare expenditures and
congressional efforts to expand the new Medicare drug
benefit, AOPA anticipates that Congress and CMS will
attempt to further reduce payment levels for O&P services
through a wide variety of means.
AOPA will be hard at work to ensure that the O&P voice is
represented during these discussions both at CMS and with
congressional leaders in order to protect the interests of
the O&P community and the patients who require these
services.
Citation
AOPA, “Medicare Chief Announces Departure,” Digital Resource Foundation for Orthotics and Prosthetics, accessed November 5, 2024, https://library.drfop.org/items/show/222186.
