Medicare Compliance & Reimbursement

Former Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services Administrator Tom Scully has joined the law firm of Alston & Bird, where he will work on "health care regulatory, strategic, and public policy matters," the firm announced Dec. 18.

Scully will also reportedly spend a couple days each week working for the New York investment firm of Welsh, Carson, Anderson & Snowe.

Meanwhile, Scully's old post is being occupied on an acting basis by Dennis Smith, who as Director of CMS's Center for Medicaid and State Operations has been responsible for Medicaid and the State Children's Health Insurance Program since mid-2001. In announcing Smith's appointment on Dec. 17, Health and Human Services Secretary Tommy Thompson said Leslie Norwalk would remain in her position as deputy administrator and would be the agency's point person in the humongous task of implementing the Medicare bill.

Thompson, who himself has said he would not stay for a second Bush term, has yet to announce a permanent successor to Scully. One of the rumored candidates, HHS Deputy General Counsel Peter Urbanowicz, has taken himself out of the running by becoming general counsel at the much-investigated Tenet Healthcare Corp., apparently wanting to spend more time with government lawyers than he could at CMS. The other oft-mentioned candidate is William Winkenwerder, MD, the Defense Department assistant secretary for health.