Seema Verma

Seema Verma (born September 27, 1970)[2] is an American health policy consultant and since March 2017 administrator of the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services, serving in the Trump Administration.[3] She is the founder and previous CEO of SVC Inc., a health policy consulting firm, which was acquired by Health Management Associates (HMA) prior to her nomination to head CMS.[4]

Seema Verma
Administrator of the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services
Assumed office
March 14, 2017
PresidentDonald Trump
Preceded byAndy Slavitt (Acting)
Personal details
Born (1970-09-27) September 27, 1970
Portsmouth, Virginia, U.S.
Political partyRepublican
Spouse(s)Sanjay Mishra
Children2
EducationUniversity of Maryland, College Park (BS)
Johns Hopkins University
(MPH)
AwardsSagamore of the Wabash (2016)[1]

Education

Verma received a bachelor's degree in life sciences from the University of Maryland, College Park in 1993. She earned a Master of Public Health with a concentration in health policy and management from the Johns Hopkins School of Public Health in 1996.[5] A graduate of the Richard G. Lugar Excellence in Public Service Series, she was selected for the American Enterprise Institute Leadership Network.[1]

Career

Early career

Verma served as vice president of the Health & Hospital Corporation of Marion County[6] and worked at the Association of State and Territorial Health Officials in Washington, DC.[3]

SVC Inc.

Verma founded health policy consulting firm SVC Inc. in June 2001. She was president and CEO of the company, which has worked with state insurance agencies and public health agencies in preparation for the implementation of the Affordable Care Act, and assisted Indiana and Kentucky, as well as other states, in the design of Medicaid expansion programs under the ACA.[3] In her work with Indiana, Ohio, and Kentucky, she developed Medicaid reform programs under the Section 1115 waiver process.[7][8] Verma's firm provided technical assistance to the state of Michigan in the implementation of their 1115 Medicaid waiver, assisted Tennessee in their coverage expansion proposal, and supported Iowa's Medicaid transition to managed care.[9]

Verma's Trump transition portrait

In 2014, concerns were raised over a potential conflict of interest arising from Verma's dual roles as both a health care consultant for Indiana and an employee of a Hewlett-Packard division that is among Indiana's largest Medicaid vendors.[6] As of 2014, SVC Inc. had been awarded over $3.5 million in Indiana state contracts while Verma was concurrently employed with Hewlett-Packard, earning over one million dollars during a period when the company had secured five hundred million dollars in state contracts.[10]

Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services
Verma speaks on the coronavirus pandemic from the White House press briefing room on April 19, 2020

On November 29, 2016, President-elect Donald Trump nominated Verma to serve as administrator of the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, the agency that oversees Medicare, Medicaid, and the insurance markets.[11] On March 13, 2017, the United States Senate confirmed her nomination in a 55–43 vote.[12] One of her first actions was to send a letter to the nation's governors, urging them to impose insurance premiums for Medicaid, charge Medicaid recipients for emergency room visits, and encourage recipients to obtain employment or job training.[13]

On July 25, 2018, Verma gave a speech[14] in San Francisco in which she criticized proposals for "Medicare for all". She claimed that single-payer healthcare would "destroy" Medicare, which provides insurance for elderly people, and lead to "Medicare for None".[15] The speech and her repeated attacks on medicare-for-all proposals led to a lawsuit alleging that her actions violated the Hatch Act.[16]

On March 2, 2020, the office of Vice President Mike Pence announced Verma's addition to White House Coronavirus Task Force.[17]

Controversy

In March 2019, Politico reported that in her role as CMS administrator, Verma approved communications subcontracts worth more than $2 million of taxpayer funds on Republican-connected communications consultants and other expenses to boost her visibility and public image. Included in the consultants' work were proposals to have Verma featured in magazines like Glamour and have her invited to prestigious events like the Kennedy honors to increase her public persona.[18][19] In July 2020, the HHS Inspector General reported that Verma spent more than $5M in taxpayer funds to do communications work and to help raise her profile. The report, a result of a 15-month investation, concluded that "CMS improperly administered the contracts and created improper employer-employee relationships between CMS and the contractors".[20][21]

Politico reported that Verma clashed with Acting HHS Secretary Alex Azar over which plans will replace Obamacare and who will get credit for those efforts, according to anonymous administration officials.[22] Reportedly, this was not the first clash Verma had with her superiors as Politico reports that Verma hired a lawyer to file a claim of a "hostile work environment" against Secretary Tom Price.[23]

On August 20, 2018, Verma filed a claim requesting that taxpayers reimburse her for jewelry that was allegedly stolen on a work-related trip to San Francisco. Although she requested $47,000, including a $325 claim for moisturizer and a $5,900 Ivanka Trump-brand pendant, she ultimately received $2,852.40 in reimbursement.[15]

In December 2019, columnist Michael Hiltzik of the Los Angeles Times declared "Seema Verma is the greatest threat to public health programs in the Trump administration, with the possible exception only of Azar himself." [24]

Personal life

Born in Virginia, Verma moved several times across the United States with her family and once lived in Taiwan for five years before settling in the greater Indianapolis area.[25] Verma's husband Sanjay runs a medical practice through the Indiana Health Group.[26][26] The couple has two children, Maya and Shaan.[27] As of 2017, Verma and her family live in Carmel, Indiana.[25]

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References
  1. Hakim-Shabazz, Abdul (November 29, 2016). "Trump Picks HIP 2.0 Architect to Serve in Administration". Indy Politics. Archived from the original on November 30, 2016.
  2. "- NOMINATION OF SEEMA VERMA, TO BE. ADMINISTRATOR, CENTERS FOR MEDICARE AND MEDICAID SERVICES, DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH AND HUMAN SERVICES". congress.gov.
  3. Pradhan, Rachana (November 29, 2016). "Trump picks Seema Verma to head Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services". Politico.
  4. "Verma sells consulting firm following CMS confirmation". Axios.
  5. "Donald Trump meets with Dr. [sic] Seema Verma, who may help in restructuring Obamacare". The American Bazaar. November 22, 2016.
  6. Cook, Tony (August 26, 2014). "Seema Verma, powerful state health-care consultant, serves two bosses". The Indianapolis Star. Archived from the original on November 29, 2016.
  7. Newkirk, Vann R., II (February 17, 2017). "Seema Verma’s Austere Vision for Medicaid". The Atlantic. theatlantic.com. Retrieved March 26, 2017.
  8. Glenza, Jessica (December 4, 2016). "Trump's pick for key health post known for punitive Medicaid plan". The Guardian. theguardian.com. Retrieved March 26, 2017.
  9. "Our Team: Seema Verma, MPH". SVC, Inc. Retrieved December 2, 2016.
  10. Cook, Tony (December 12, 2014). "5 loopholes in Indiana's ethics laws". The Indianapolis Star.
  11. Sanger-Katz, Margot (December 1, 2016). "A Trump Pick, and Why Indiana's Strict Medicaid Rules Could Spread". The New York Times.
  12. "On the Nomination PN49: Seema Verma, of Indiana, to be Administrator of the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services". GovTrack. March 13, 2017. Retrieved March 14, 2017.
  13. Goldstein, Amy (March 15, 2017). "On first day in office, new Medicaid chief urges states to charge premiums, prod recipients to get jobs". The Washington Post.
  14. MEDICARE AND MEDICAID ADMINISTRATOR SEEMA VERMA, YouTube, July 25, 2018, retrieved December 8, 2019
  15. Diamond, Dan. "Medicare chief asked taxpayers to cover stolen jewelry". POLITICO. Retrieved December 8, 2019.
  16. "CREW Files Hatch Act Complaint Against CMS' Seema Verma". CREW. Retrieved December 8, 2019.
  17. Lejeune, Tristan (March 2, 2020). "White House adds VA secretary, CMS chief to coronavirus task force". TheHill. Retrieved April 13, 2020.
  18. "Exclusive: Key Trump health official spends millions on GOP-connected consultants". Politico. March 29, 2019.
  19. "Contractor proposed Glamour magazine profile for Medicaid chief". Politico. November 20, 2019.
  20. "Top health official violated federal contracting rules, HHS inspector general finds", Yasmeen Abutaleb 16 July 2020, Washington Post, https://www.washingtonpost.com/health/2020/07/16/verma-violated-contracting-rules/?hpid=hp_hp-banner-main_vermacontracts-205pm%3Ahomepage%2Fstory-ans&itid=hp_hp-banner-main_vermacontracts-205pm%3Ahomepage%2Fstory-ans
  21. "Inspector general: Medicare chief broke rules on her publicity contracts", Dan Diamon and Adam Cancryn, Politico, https://www.politico.com/news/2020/07/16/medicare-chief-rules-publicity-contracts-365482
  22. "Clashes among top HHS officials undermine Trump agenda". Politico.
  23. "Medicare chief sought to bring complaints against previous boss, as well". Politico.
  24. Hiltzik, Michael. "Medicare boss Seema Verma is a threat to public health". LATIMES. Retrieved December 12, 2019.
  25. "Seema Verma: A Carmel Resident in Charge of American Healthcare". Carmel Monthly Magazine. Carmel, Indiana. August 30, 2017. Retrieved June 15, 2018.
  26. "Senate Finance Committee Hearing on Seema Verma Confirmation". Policy and Medicine. February 27, 2017. Retrieved March 30, 2017.
  27. Clarke, Sara (March 15, 2017). "10 Things You Didn't Know About Seema Verma". U.S. News & World Report. Retrieved March 30, 2017.
Political offices
Preceded by
Andy Slavitt
Acting		 Administrator of the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services
2017–present		 Incumbent
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