President spares Berwick the circus
Republican Senators had sought to re-litigate health reform through the Berwick appointment, but the President acted after Democratic Sen. Max Baucus refused for weeks to even schedule a hearing on the nomination. Baucus condemned the move.
Berwick is widely admired in the health industry, with 90 major advocacy groups having written in support of him just last week. By way of full disclosure, this blog has also been supportive of the nomination.
Washington Post blogger Ezra Klein predicts Republicans will be pleasantly surprised by Berwick, whose advocacy of "patient-centered" health care is traditionally seen as conservative.
Beyond the politics, CMS has not had a full-time leader since 2006, reining in Medicare and Medicaid costs are key to dealing with budget deficits, and Dr. Berwick now has until the end of 2011 to prove himself.
President Bush's last appointee to head CMS, Kerry Weems, was never confirmed and served as an acting administrator through the end of the Administration. Weems, who had been a career civil servant, is now a senior vice president at Vangent.
By the time Berwick's recess appointment ends, we should have some idea about whether the Medicare bureaucracy is intractable and whether he really can affect change.
As Maggie Mahar wrote at The Health Care Blog earlier today, "We needed Berwick, in Washington, guiding CMS. Yesterday-- or eight years ago."