President-Elect Donald Trump officially announced Rep. Tom Price, MD (R-GA) as his pick to lead the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS). Well known to ACC members and throughout the medical community, Price has served in Congress for six terms. A past recipient of the ACC President’s Award for Distinguished Public Service, he currently chairs the House Budget Committee and also sits on the Committee on Ways and Means. Price was a leading figure in the fight to repeal the Sustainable Growth Rate, and has played a key role in efforts to improve electronic health record usability; he has lately been extremely involved in the push to streamline and simplify Meaningful Use reporting requirements. Price has vigorously opposed the Affordable Care Act (ACA) and introduced a bill to repeal and replace ACA late last year. He has also been a frequent critic of the Center for Medicare and Medicaid Innovation. Should he be confirmed, Price and his policy priorities will be central to the future of these programs.

President-Elect Trump also announced his selection of Seema Verma, MPH, to be the CMS Administrator. Verma has been involved in health care policy for more than 20 years, focusing largely on state-based initiatives, and she has extensive connections to Vice President-Elect Mike Pence. She is the President, CEO and founder of SVC, Inc., a health policy consulting company. Much of her recent work has focused on health care in the state of Indiana. In 2007, Verma helped create and implement Indiana’s Medicaid, Healthy Indiana Plan under Governor Daniels, and she has continued to be active in its development and redesign under Governor Pence. She also served as Indiana’s lead on ACA implementation.

As the president-elect continues to assemble his leadership team, the ACC will continue working with regulators to ensure clinicians are able to offer patients access to necessary cardiovascular care services and therapies. The College has a long-standing history of working across political parties to advance our mission of transforming cardiovascular care and improving heart health, and our efforts to advocate for policy protecting patient access to quality, cost-effective care and ensuring continued funding for cardiovascular research and graduate medical education will continue with the next presidential administration and Congress. Read a post-election response from ACC Leadership here.

Keywords: Budgets, Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, U.S., Education, Medical, Graduate, Electronic Health Records, Government, Health Policy, Leadership, Medicaid, Medicare, Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, United States Dept. of Health and Human Services

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