Obama Nominates Donald Berwick To Be Next Administrator of CMS

President Obama April 19 nominated Harvard professor Donald Berwick to be the next administrator of the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services, a post that has been vacant since late 2006. Berwick is a clinical professor of pediatrics and health care policy at the Harvard Medical School and the Harvard School of Public Health. He is also president and chief executive officer of the Institute for Healthcare Improvement, a Cambridge, Massachusetts-based not-for-profit organization that promotes the improvement of health care.

CMS has been without a permanent administrator since October 2006 when Mark McClellan left the agency. Kerry N. Weems served as acting CMS administrator from 2007 until the end of the Bush administration. Charlene Frizzera is currently the agency's acting administrator.

Berwick, whose name surfaced several months ago as a possible nominee for the post, must be approved by the Senate Finance Committee and the entire Senate before beginning his job.