Obama Nominates Slavitt as Medicare Administrator

President Barack Obama’s nomination of acting administrator Andy Slavitt to be administrator of the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services leaves Senate Republicans weighing how to orchestrate the confirmation process in their favor.

The Senate could use a confirmation hearing to rehash the stumbles of the 2010 healthcare overhaul, particularly the launch of the federal exchange website. They could cite Slavitt’s past involvement with a company working on the federal exchange. Both would deflect attention from Obama’s victory in June, when the Supreme Court said the law’s subsidies should be available in every state regardless of who runs the health insurance exchange.
But Republicans may dislike giving Democrats a stage to pose easy questions and allow Slavitt to promote the law, including his role in improving the federal exchange. That is especially the case since the Republicans can do little to change the law for the remaining 17 months of Obama’s term. They may prefer to do nothing and leave Slavitt as acting administrator.

Slavitt worked for federal contractor Optum when it came in to fix healthcare.gov. But he was also with Optum when its subsidiary, Quality Software Services Inc., built the data hub for the federal exchange website. The hub was viewed as one of the few pieces of the IT apparatus that worked, but the company created the registration tool that caused bottlenecks after the troubled October 2013 launch. QSSI received a larger role during the cleanup effort later that month. Consequently, Slavitt could be painted as being both part of the problem and part of the solution.

It is also possible that the Senate will hold a hearing only to see the confirmation fizzle out later. Slavitt would replace Marilyn Tavenner, who stepped down in January to join America’s Health Insurance Plans as president and CEO, was the first Senate-approved administrator of CMS since Mark McClellan occupied the post from 2004 to 2006. Obama administration nominees haven’t been moving through the Senate particularly quickly since Republicans took control in the 114th Congress. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY), said Slavitt’s nomination “will receive thorough consideration” in a statement released after the July 9 announcement.