5 things to know about CMS Administrator-designate Seema Verma

Seema Verma, MPH, a healthcare consultant from Indiana, has been nominated to serve as administrator of the U.S. Centers of Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) under President-elect Donald J. Trump.

Here’s what physicians need to know about Verma.

1.     Verma is president and chief executive officer of SVC, Inc., a national healthcare consulting company based in Indianapolis, Indiana. According to the SVC website, Verma “has worked extensively on a variety of policy and strategic projects involving Medicaid, insurance, and public health, working with Governor's offices, State Medicaid agencies, State Health Departments, State Departments of Insurance, as well as the federal government, private companies and foundations.”

2.     She is an ally of Vice President-elect Mike Pence, and was responsible for putting together Pence’s Obamacare Medicaid expansion, otherwise known as “Healthy Indiana Plan 2.0.” She has also worked on Medicaid programs in other GOP states, including Kentucky, Iowa, Ohio and Maine.

3.     Verma is known as a Medicaid specialist who has worked with Republican governors to introduce conservative ideas to their state Medicaid programs, including health savings accounts and employment requirements, according to Politico.

4.     After the Affordable Care Act (ACA) was approved in 2010, Verma was appointed as Indiana’s health reform lead, where she worked to prepare for ACA implementation.

5.     Before her consulting work, Verma worked as vice president of planning for the Health & Hospital Corporation of Marion County, Indiana. She was also a director with the Association of State and Territorial Health Officials, a nonprofit public health organization made up of public health.