Home Health & Hospice Week

Although the U.S. Senate still hasn’t yet scheduled confirmation hearings for President Biden’s Health and Human Services Secretary nominee, California Attorney General Xavier Becerra, the likely candidate for the CMS administrator position is emerging.

Chiquita Brooks-LaSure, an Obama-era CMS official, looks likely to be tapped for the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services leadership role, reports Politico. “As deputy director for policy at the Center for Consumer Information and Insurance Oversight within the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services, and earlier at the Department of Health & Human Services as director of coverage policy, she led the agency’s implementation of ACA coverage and insurance reform policy provisions,” says Brooks-LaSure’s profile on the website for her current employer, consulting firm Manatt Health in Washington, D.C., related to law firm Manatt, Phelps & Phillips.

Another former CMS staffer, North Carolina health secretary Mandy Cohen, was also rumored to be in the running for the spot, but it appears Brooks-LaSure has all but cinched the nomination.

Don’t look for Brooks-LaSure’s nomination hearing to occur any time soon, though. The Biden administration appears focused on Becerra’s installation and proceeding with its COVID-19 strategy, insiders say.