On April 19, President Barack Obama nominated Donald Berwick, MD, to be the next administrator of the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services.
Berwick is currently president and CEO of the Institute for Healthcare Improvement and a professor at Harvard Medical School and the Harvard School of Public Health. He is a pediatrician at Boston’s Children’s Hospital.
A summa cum laude graduate of Harvard College, Berwick holds a Masters in public policy from the John F. Kennedy School of Government. He received his medical degree from Harvard Medical School, where he graduated cum laude.
President Obama said he is confident Berwick “will be an outstanding leader for the agency and the millions of Americans it serves,” and the healthcare provider community seems to agree.
Rich Umbdenstock, president and CEO of the American Hospital Association, called Berwick “a true leader for healthcare quality improvement.”
Susan DeVore, president and CEO of the Premier healthcare alliance, and
Nancy Nielsen, MD, the immediate past president of the American Medical Association, said Berwick is well-respected for his leadership in improving quality of care.
News outlets report that Berwick, who would normally be greeted with a swift Senate confirmation, will likely face delays in his confirmation to mark GOP discontent over the passage of healthcare reform.
If Berwick were to be confirmed, he would be responsible for more than 120 million Americans’ healthcare coverage under Medicare, Medicaid and the State Children’s Health Insurance Program.
Medicare is facing bankruptcy, and physicians are staring at a 21 percent Medicare pay cut by June 1 if Congress doesn’t act to stop it.
Since the first CMS administrator in 1977, there have been 27 administrators to head the agency. Only three have been physicians. Berwick would make the fourth. Perhaps this would give him added insight into the plights doctors currently face.
What does Berwick have to say about it? He is “flattered and humbled” to be nominated.
“I have never felt more excited about what is possible for what we all care about – a healthier nation, a healthier system of care, and a healthier world,” he said.