Medicare Compliance & Reimbursement

Unfinished business with the MMA casts a shadow over appointments.

Health and Human Services Secretary Tommy Thompson, who has served in the position since 2000, announced his resignation Dec. 3.
 
Speculation immediately ensued that Mark McClellan, administrator of the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, would take over the HHS post. But the job went instead to Michael Leavitt, who had been in charge of the Environmental Protection Agency for barely a year.

At a news conference, Thompson said that he had initially wanted to resign shortly after the Medicare Modernization Act was enacted at the beginning of this year. But the White House persuaded him to serve out the rest of President Bush's first term, he said.

The MMA is probably the reason why McClellan was kept from taking over HHS, experts said. Losing its second administrator in less than a year would have been a heavy drain on CMS, which has yet to complete implementation of the MMA.

Thompson said he wished Congress had given him power to negotiate with drug manufacturers to secure lower prices for Medicare beneficiaries, the Times reports. Critics have said that such a move would lead to price controls, cutting revenues needed for pharmaceutical research.