The rumors we sniffed out last week are true: President Obama wants Donald Berwick to run CMS. Berwick, 63, is currently a professor in Harvard's Department of Health Policy and Management. He's also president and CEO of the Institute for Health Care Improvement, a non-profit policy group that aims to boost health care quality while lowering costs. Berwick also has clinical experience as a pediatrician.
The initial reaction from health policy experts seems pretty positive. "This would be a spectacular appointment," says Steven Findlay, a health policy analyst at Consumers Union, in a New York Times article on Berwick's selection. "Don has been an intellectual force in health care for decades. He helped forge many ideas incorporated in the new health care law."
Dartmouth professor Elliott Fisher called Berwick "an extraordinary leader when it comes to inspiring people and creating the will to move forward." Fisher - who led the "Dartmouth study" that showed high Medicare utilization didn't always result in good health outcomes - was also optimistic about Berwick's ability to change the Medicare payment system. "He has demonstrated his ability to teach people how to implement change in a complex system," Fisher is quoted saying in the Health Beat blog.
But politics may prevent smooth sailing. Berwick has to go through the Congressional nomination process, and it's likely Republicans will use the process to attack the recently passed health care reform bill, according to BusinessWeek.
Obama is expected to officially announce Berwick's nomination shortly, possibly this week, according to reports in the Associated Press.