WASHINGTON: Indian-American Health Policy Expert Appointed To Key Medicare Position

WASHINGTON: Indian-American health policy
expert Dr. Meena Seshamani, who served on the leadership of the Biden-Harris
transition Health and Human Services (HHS) agency review team, has been
appointed as the Director of the US Centre for Medicare.

Dr.
Sheshamani, 43, will lead the Centre’s efforts in serving the people 65 or
older, people with disabilities and people with End-Stage Renal Disease that
rely on Medicare coverage.

Meena
Seshamani’s position as Deputy Administrator and Director of Centre for
Medicare started on July 6.

“Dr.
Meena Seshamani brings her diverse background as a health care executive,
health economist, physician and health policy expert to CMS,” said CMS
(Centres for Medicare & Medicaid Services) Administrator Chiquita
Brooks-LaSure.

“Providing
quality health care to the people who rely on Medicare and advancing health
equity as we do it is a priority for CMS. I am delighted to say Dr. Seshamani
will bring her unique perspective on how health policy impacts the real lives
of patients to her leadership role as Deputy Administrator and Director of the
Centre for Medicare,” she said.

Dr
Seshamani most recently served as Vice President of Clinical Care
Transformation at MedStar Health, where she conceptualised, designed, and
implemented population health and value-based care initiatives and served on
the senior leadership of the 10 hospital, 300+ outpatient care site health
system, a media release said.

The care
models and service lines under her leadership, including community health,
geriatrics, and palliative care, have been nationally recognised by the
Institute for Healthcare Improvement and others.

She also
cared for patients as an Assistant Professor of Otolaryngology-Head and Neck
Surgery at the Georgetown University School of Medicine, it said.

Dr
Seshamani also brings decades of policy experience to her role, including
recently serving on the leadership of the Biden-Harris transition HHS agency
review team.

Prior to
MedStar Health, she was director of the office of Health Reform at the US Department
of Health and Human Services, where she drove strategy and led implementation
of the Affordable Care Act across the department, including coverage policy,
delivery system reform, and public health policy, the statement said.

She
received her B.A. with Honours in Business Economics from Brown University, her
M.D. from the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine, and her Ph.D. in
Health Economics from the University of Oxford, where she was a Marshall
Scholar.