The head of the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services will be stepping down at the end of February, according to an email to agency employees Jan. 16.
Marilyn Tavenner, who became the administrator in 2010, said the agency has accomplished a lot over the last few years, such as helping to implement the Affordable Care Act and improving operations across the agency.
“CMS has always been “the biggest payer of healthcare services in the United States” and that in and of itself is a huge and complex responsibility for any Administrator and his or her team to manage,” Tavenner said in an email. “And with the passage of the Affordable Care Act in March of 2010, we had many additional challenges put before us to look at ways to improve quality, reduce costs, eliminate fraud, increase transparency, and provide access to millions more of our fellow Americans.”
Those accomplishments include:
- Fraud reduction: The Agency has implemented new systems to identify and remove Medicare and Medicaid providers for infractions while using predictive analytics to identify suspicious spending and claims. The agency gets $5 in returned recovered funding for every $1 spent on the system.
- Health care quality: Improved standards and better monitoring helped the agency achieve a 17 percent reduction in hospital acquired conditions – saving an estimated 50,000 lives and $12 billion in health care costs.
- Slower health care spending: Helped reduce health care spending to achieve historically low growth levels while extending the health of the Medicare trust fund through 2030.
But Tavenner’s tenure was also marred by the disastrous launch of Healthcare.gov, which derailed health insurance signups as customers dealt with glitches, Lost data, crashed web pages and other customer service issues.
After several months and a change in lead contractor from CGI Federal to Accenture, the website rebounded, but only after the administration scrambled to boost resources and bring in private-sector IT experience.
“I feel fortunate to leave here with a great sense of accomplishment, a wealth of knowledge, many new friends and the comfort of knowing that the citizens of this country and I are in great hands with all of you and your incredible drive and commitment to continue transforming our healthcare system,” she said.
