Sea Change at CMS

Administrator Marilyn Tavenner officially named Paul Spitalnic as the CMS chief actuary. I worked with Paul when he first came to CMS to implement the Part D program. He then served as the Director of the Part C and D actuarial group. Paul is very smart and will ably fill the shoes of other distinguished CMS chief actuaries that I have worked with including Guy King and Rick Foster.  Both Guy and Rick were outstanding public officials who came to CMS from the Social Security Administration and from a tradition of government run social insurance programs. I guess experience with the managed care side of Medicare is no longer considered a handicap.  To me this shows how much has changed at CMS. Part C is almost 30 percent of the Medicare program and Part D is administered through contracts with private plans.  These programs are no longer step children.  Congratulations Paul.