Obama official steps down before SCOTUS ruling
The Obama administration official who’s running a key part of health reform is stepping down — just two weeks before the Supreme Court could strike down part or all of the law.
Steve Larsen is resigning as head of HHS's Center for Consumer Information and Insurance Oversight effective in mid-July, acting CMS Administrator Marilyn Tavenner announced to the agency staff Friday morning.
He will temporarily be replaced by Mike Hash, who currently heads the HHS Office of Health Reform, until the department finds a permanent replacement.
Tavenner’s announcement didn’t give a reason for Larsen’s departure or any details on his future plans.
The shake-up comes at a sensitive time for the office. If the Supreme Court upholds the health reform law, CCIIO will have a lot of work to do helping states meet an end-of-the-year deadline for preparing to implement health insurance exchanges.
But if the law is struck down — or even if only parts of it are overturned — the head of the agency will have to pick up the pieces.
Here is the full text of the email Tavenner sent to staffers Friday morning:
Dear Colleagues, I write to share with you news that Steve Larsen has informed me of his decision to resign his role as Deputy Administrator of the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) and Director of the Center for Consumer Information and Insurance Oversight (CCIIO) effective in mid July. As you know, Steve has been an instrumental part of our senior leadership team and I am deeply grateful for his dedication to our work to implement the Affordable Care Act.
Steve and I have worked closely over the past year in our efforts to incorporate the work of CCIIO into CMS. Together we have leveraged CMS' strengths as we took on these new responsibilities and I am proud of our efforts to hold insurance companies accountable to consumers and our work with states and others to build a new insurance marketplace. His efforts helped to lay the foundation for our continued success and have put us on a path to make sure that these new marketplaces are available to consumers in every state in 2014.
In consultation with Secretary Sebelius, we have asked Mike Hash to serve as Interim Director of CCIIO while I work to recruit a permanent successor for this role. As the Director of the Office of Health Reform, Mike is an invaluable partner to CMS as we work to implement the Affordable Care Act. His knowledge of CMS and our work uniquely position him to seamlessly continue the progress we have made.
Please join me in thanking Steve for his dedicated leadership and service and giving Mike your full support as we continue our important work together. I am especially pleased we are able to have a strong leadership team in place at CMS as we move forward and am excited about all that we will continue to do to make a difference in the lives of millions of Americans.
Sincerely,
Marilyn Tavenner
Acting Administrator
This article first appeared on POLITICO Pro at 11:51 a.m. on June 15, 2012.
