Meet the new CMS Administrator – Chiquita Brooks-LaSure

TOPICS:

Posted By: Roberta Mullin May 31, 2021

Chiquita Brooks-LaSure

Confirmed by the Senate (55-44) on Tuesday, May 25th, Chiquita Brooks-LaSure is now the Administrator for the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS), where she will oversee programs including Medicare, Medicaid, the Children’s Health Insurance Program (CHIP), and the HealthCare.gov health insurance marketplace.

Brooks-LaSure was a former Obama administration health official, and is the first woman administrator to lead the agency. She is a seasoned healthcare policy professional. Her career began as a program examiner and lead Medicaid analyst for the Office of Management and Budget, coordinating Medicaid policy development for the health financing branch. Her role included evaluating policy options and briefing White House and federal agency officials on policy recommendations with regard to the uninsured, Medicaid and the Children’s Health Insurance Program. It continued with assisting the House leaders in passing several health care laws, including the Medicare Improvements for Patients and Providers Act of 2008 and the ACA, as part of the Democratic staff for the U.S. House of Representatives’ Ways and Means Committee.

Read the statement from Secretary Becerra on her swearing-in.

CMS is a $1 trillion agency responsible for health care for more than 100 million people nationwide. The agency pledges to put patients first in all their programs, Medicaid, Medicare, and the Health Insurance Exchanges by empowering patients to work with their doctors and make health care decisions that are best for them.

In an article on SELF, they spoke with health policy advocates about how Brooks-LaSure will likely approach key issues as CMS administrator like health coverage, reproductive health care, maternal health, and health equity. All key issues when it comes to the Biden administration’s more, better, and fairer health care for all.

According to a NY Times article, the agency is key to fulfilling Mr. Biden’s health care agenda. His administration and a Democratic-controlled Congress are aiming to engineer the first substantial reforms and expansion of the Affordable Care Act since its passage, in part through billions of dollars in the American Rescue Plan. The administration opened a highly publicized special enrollment period in February that allowed the uninsured to sign up for coverage right away, drawing in over a million Americans.

Industry Responds

WEDI

WEDI congratulates Chiquita Brooks-LaSure for her confirmation as Administrator of the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS). Administrator Brooks-LaSure is now in a position to lead the nation’s COVID-19 relief efforts and reform of the Medicare and Medicaid programs to better address the needs of beneficiaries and the underserved. WEDI is at the forefront of a health information technology industry that continues to develop solutions to the challenges facing an inefficient health care ecosystem. WEDI looks forward to working closely with Administrator Brooks-LaSure as she leads the transition to automated solutions for administrative transactions and the leveraging of data interoperability to facilitate improved delivery of patient care.

               -Statement attributable to Charles Stellar, WEDI President and CEO

AANP
The American Association of Nurse Practitioners® (AANP) congratulates newly confirmed Administrator Chiquita Brooks-LaSure of the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) and pledges its continued support to help end the COVID-19 pandemic and expand access to high-quality health care.

AAMC
The Association of American Medical Colleges congratulates Chiquita Brooks-LaSure on her nomination as CMS administrator. She has been a strong, persistent, and effective voice in support of increasing patient access to vital health care, and her detailed understanding of Medicare, Medicaid, and the Affordable Care Act (ACA), as well as her commitment to health equity, makes her a welcome partner in academic medicine’s work to improve the health of people everywhere.