The Department of Health and Human Services is looking to streamline management overseeing the federal health insurance marketplace, appointing a new deputy administrator while announcing that it’s searching for two chief officers to head Healthcare.gov.
HHS Secretary Sylvia Burwell announced Friday that Andy Slavitt will become the Center for Medicare and Medicaid Services’ principal deputy administrator, primarily responsible for oversight of the all day-to-day agency operations. Slavitt, most recently the group executive vice president for Optum, had been overseeing work needed to fix problems associated with Healthcare.gov’s botched launch.
Healthcare.gov, which launched in October, was marred by months of usability problems. Minnesota-based Optum was brought in to fix the site at the end of October. By spring, more than 8 million people signed up through the federal exchange.
“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,” CMS Administrator Marilyn Tavenner said in a release.
In addition, CMS is also actively recruiting a chief executive and chief technology officer to run the exchange. These two roles will be “accountable for policy development and technical operations” while also working with states on implementing new features.
“These actions will bolster our team and further instill ongoing accountability for reaching milestones, measuring results and delivering results for the American people,” said Burwell in a release. “Under this new structure, we bring additional operational and technological fire power and have a clear single point of contact in the Marketplace CEO to streamline decision-making.”
HHS also announced that Kurt DelBene will step down from his temporary role as senior advisor on HealthCare.gov. DelBene, a former Microsoft executive, had been appointed by the White House last year to oversee technical work for HHS. DelBene will stay on through the end of the month.
