Senate confirms Verma as CMS chief while debate intensifies over Obamacare replacement

The U.S. Senate voted yesterday 55-43 to confirm Seema Verma to head the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services.

Verma is the founder & CEO of SVC Inc, a healthcare consulting firm, and worked with now-Vice President Mike Pence when he was governor of Indiana to redesign the state’s Medicaid program.

In an earlier committee hearing, Sen. Ron Wyden (D-Ore.) said that while working on Indiana’s health program, Verma’s firm was receiving money from companies that were providing services to the state’s program.

Verma has denied wrongdoing and said she plans to divest her financial ties to SVC within 90 days of confirmation.

“MDMA congratulates Seema Verma on her confirmation as the next CMS Administrator, and we look forward to working with her to ensure that medical technologies are covered in a timely manner and reimbursed adequately so that patients and providers can benefit from the cures and therapies of tomorrow,” president & CEO of the Medical Device Manufacturers Association Mark Leahey said in prepared remarks. “The medical device industry continues to develop solutions to the challenges facing the health care ecosystem, and it is critical that these innovations are accessible to those who need them most in a timely manner.”

Also yesterday, the nonpartisan U.S. Congressional Budget Office said that 14 million Americans would lose their insurance next year under the Republican’s Obamacare replacement plan, the American Health Care Act.

According to the proposed replacement plan, a lot would change for the $1 trillion government health program.

The proposal suggests rolling back an expansion of the Medicaid program and would replace Obamacare’s income-based tax credits with flat, age-based credits. The bill passed 2 House committees last week and will go to the House Budget Committee this week.

The CBO added that under the Republican’s plan, 24 million more people could be uninsured by 2026. Price told reporters that the administration did not agree with the nonpartisan office’s findings and said that the CBO had not evaluated the full plan.

The study also found that the plan would reduce federal deficits by $337 billion in the next decade.

Material from Reuters was used in this report. 

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