The federal government is girding for a second wave of Healthcare.gov enrollees this fall with new positions that bring a fresh injection of technology and management expertise.
Health and Human Services Secretary Sylvia Burwell, in fact, said she wants to improve oversight and accountability at the agency going into open enrollment for the 2015 health plan year this fall, after “lessons learned from the rollout of HealthCare.gov” and various recommendations.
To help achieve that, Burwell announced that the department appointed a new principal deputy administrator for the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, and created two new jobs: chief executive officer and chief technology officer.
Replacing Jonathan Blum, who left this spring, Burwell appointed UnitedHealth/Optum group VP Andy Slavitt as CMS principal deputy administrator, following as second in command to administrator Marilyn Tavenner.
“Andy’s breadth of experience throughout the healthcare sector makes him the right person for this role, and I am excited for our partnership across all of the CMS programs,” said CMS administrator Marilyn Tavenner.
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Slavitt has landed the deputy administrator job after helping lead the “tech surge” repair efforts for Healthcare.gov, via Optum’s QSSI unit, a contractor on the federal exchange data hub. He also spent more than a decade at UnitedHealth Group, joining in 2003 through the acquisition of Health Allies, a discount program for health products and services not covered by insurance.
As principal deputy administrator, Slavitt will be overseeing agency-wide policy, covering everything from Medicare Advantage to Medicaid and exchanges.
Burwell also announced the creation of two positions overseeing the national insurance exchange program: chief executive officer and chief technology officer.
The CEO will be responsible for “leading the federal marketplace, managing relationships with state marketplaces, and running the Center for Consumer Information and Insurance Oversight,” reporting to Tavenner “with a dotted line to” Burwell.
The CTO, reporting to the CEO, will work with the Office of Information Services within CMS “in order to ensure proper alignment of project milestones and deliverables.”
Both CEO and CTO “will be accountable for policy development and technical operations of the federal Health Insurance Marketplace, working closely with a variety of stakeholders and states on ongoing implementation efforts,” Burwell and Tavenner said.
The second wave of Healthcare.gov insurance enrollees promises to be just as big a consumer turnout as the first one, which began in the fall of 2013, and was widely considered to be a botched rollout, technologically speaking.
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