Affordable Care Act has rocky road ahead despite Tavenner confirmation

by Kent Bottles The 91-7 confirmation by the U.S. Senate of Marilyn B. Tavenner as administrator of the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services means we now have a permanent CMS leader for the first time since Mark B. McClellan, M.D., left the post in October 2006. Republicans refused to allow a vote on Obama's first choice, Donald M. Berwick, M.D.; he served as acting administrator for 18 months under a recess appointment. Does this bipartisan Senate vote mean we have finally accepted that the Affordable Care Act is the law of the land? Will all Americans now work together to ensure the new law will be fully implemented as smoothly as possible? In a word, the answer to those questions is no. For example, one of the senators voting against Tavenner was the Republican Minority Leader Mitch McConnell who issued the following statement to Politico: "By giving the CMS administrator the primary role in implementing Obamacare, with the responsibility for issuing and enforcing thousands of pages of new regulations, rules and requirements, the Obama administration has changed the central focus of this job. The new administrator's time and focus will be diverted on what my Democratic colleagues have called an impending 'train wreck,' rather than strengthening Medicare and Medicaid at a time when they face enormous challenges." Democratic Sen.Tom Harkin of Iowa delayed the Tavenner confirmation vote to protest the raid of ACA's prevention and public health fund to pay f...
Source: hospital impact - Category: Health Managers Authors: Source Type: blogs