Sebelius named to head HHS; DeParle will lead Obama health reform push
By Nancy Ferris
Monday, March 02, 2009
President Obama has nominated Kansas Gov. Kathleen Sebelius as his secretary of Health and Human Services and named Nancy Ann DeParle to head his new White House Office for Health Reform.
Sebelius last mentioned health IT in her annual state-of-the-state address in 2007, when she said, “We’ll continue our efforts to reduce the administrative overhead eating up a third of every health care dollar, working with health providers to use technology to reduce costs.”
Although health information technology has not been one of her top priorities, she has pushed hard for health reform in Kansas, including gradual moves toward universal coverage. As a Democratic governor with a Republican-dominated legislature, she encountered resistance to many of her proposals but achieved some success.
For example, Sebelius and the legislature agreed to create the Kansas Health Policy Authority, an independent agency that administers the state’s largest health programs. The authority is now planning to make e-health records available for Medicaid recipients and state employees statewide.
If confirmed by the Senate for the top HHS post, Sebelius will oversee not only the Office of the National Coordinator of Health IT but also the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services and other agencies employing nearly 65,000 people and accounting for almost one-quarter of federal spending.
Her background includes serving as Kansas’ insurance commissioner from 1994 to 2002.
"Kathleen Sebelius has a remarkable intellect, unquestioned integrity and the kind of pragmatic wisdom you’ll tend to find in a Kansan," President Barack Obama said in announcing her nomination.
DeParle, who was CMS administrator in the Clinton administration, was commissioner of the Tennessee Department of Human Services for two years in the 1980s. She is a member of the board of directors of Cerner Corp., which is among the largest health IT companies.
When President Obama nominated former Sen. Tom Daschle as HHS secretary in January, he wanted Daschle to head the health reform office as well. After Daschle withdrew from consideration, the president chose two people to fill the two posts.
