Meena Seshamani, MD, PhD will serve as Deputy Administrator and Director of Center for Medicare and will lead the Center's efforts for those who rely on Medicare coverage.
 
The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) announced a new director of the Center for Medicare on Tuesday.
Meena Seshamani, MD, PhD will serve as Deputy Administrator and Director of Center for Medicare. Seshamani will lead the Center for Medicare's efforts for those who rely on Medicare coverage, including people 65 and older, people with disabilities, and people with end-stage renal disease.
 
"Dr. Meena Seshamani brings her diverse background as a health care executive, health economist, physician and health policy expert to CMS," CMS Administrator Chiquita Brooks-LaSure said in a statement. "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 Center for Medicare."
 
Seshamani has decades of experience in healthcare policy, delivery system reform, and public health policy. Most recently, she served as vice president of clinical care transformation for MedStar Health, a 10-hospital health system based in Maryland with over 300 outpatient care sites. During her tenure, she "conceptualized, designed, and implemented population health and value-based care initiatives and served as a senior leader," according to the press release.
 
She also recently served as a leader on the Biden-Harris Transition HHS Agency Review Team. Prior to that, she served as Director of the Office of Health Reform for the Department of Health and Human Services, where she led the strategy and implementation of the Affordable Care Act.
 
Melanie Blackman is the strategy editor at HealthLeaders, an HCPro brand.