Agency Veterans Appointed as Acting CMS, HHS Leaders
February 8, 2021Agency veteran Liz Richter has been named the acting administrator of the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services and Norris Cochran will lead as acting Department of Health and Human Services Secretary.
The announcement 1/20/2021 comes as President Joe Biden has yet to name a permanent administrator for CMS, which will require Senate confirmation. Biden has nominated California Attorney General Xavier Becerra to serve as his HHS secretary but there has been no confirmation hearing scheduled yet.
Cochran was previously the deputy assistant secretary of budget for HHS.
He was the acting secretary back in January and February 2017 while former HHS Secretary Tom Price was confirmed in the Senate.
Sean McCluskie was chosen as the chief of staff for HHS. He was previously the chief deputy attorney general in California, acting as Becerra’s second in command.
Richter has served at CMS since 1990 and most recently served as the deputy center director for the Center for Medicare. She has also served as the director of the Hospital and Ambulatory Policy Group in the Center for Medicare Management.
Jeff Wu will serve as the acting principal deputy administrator and the deputy director of policy in the Center for Consumer Information and Insurance Oversight, which oversees regulations and policy for the Affordable Care Act’s health insurance reforms and marketplaces.