Long-Term Care

Full plate for new CMS administrator

Contemporary Long-Term Care Weekly, April 8, 2010

CMS, which is an $800 billion bureaucracy with nearly 5,000 employees, is also the biggest payer of healthcare bills in the U.S. and arguably the most influential in health reform. President Obama is reportedly on the verge of officially naming Don Berwick, MD, a highly regarded idealist in quality and efficiency, to lead the agency. CMS has been without an administrator since 2006 though Kerry Weems was the acting administrator during the final years of the Bush administration.

Berwick, a Harvard pediatrician who, 20 years ago, founded the Institute for Healthcare Improvement to remodel how doctors and hospitals treat patients, describes himself as "an extremist" in his advocacy of patient-centered care. That concept of patient-centered care requires remodeling the entire healthcare delivery system, as many reform supporters have proposed.

Whether Berwick will actually be named, and whether he will accept the challenge, remain unclear. But whoever agrees to take the CMS administrator's desk will have to be a kind of dragon slayer from the start by confronting a host of issues and obstacles and overcoming long-held customs and practices.

To read this article in its entirety, which includes a list of 10 issues the new CMS administrator will immediately face, please visit HealthLeaders Media.

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