Seema Verma

Seema Verma is a health policy consultant and President-elect Donald Trump's nominee for administrator of the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services.^[1] She is the founder and CEO of SVC Inc., a health policy consulting firm.

Education

Verma received her bachelor's degree in life sciences from the University of Maryland, College Park in 1993. She earned a master's degree in public health with a concentration in health policy and management from the Johns Hopkins School of Public Health in 1996.^[2]

Career

Early career

Verma worked for the Health & Hospital Corporation of Marion County as vice president of planning^[3] and at the Association of State and Territorial Health Officials in Washington, DC.^[1]

SVC Inc.

Verma founded the health policy consulting firm SVC Inc. in June 2001. She is president and CEO of the company, which has worked with the states of Indiana, Iowa, Kentucky, Maine, Michigan, Ohio, and Tennessee.^[1] In preparation for the implementation of Obamacare, Verma and SVC Inc. have worked with state insurance agencies and public health agencies to redesign their Medicaid programs. She developed Medicaid reform programs, including waivers, for Ohio, Kentucky, and Iowa. Her firm provided technical assistance to the state of Michigan in the implementation of their 1115 Medicaid waiver. SVC also assisted Tennessee in their coverage expansion proposal and supported Iowa's Medicaid transition to managed care.^[4]

Following the passage of Obamacare, Verma worked with Indiana Governor Mitch Daniels on health care policy.^[5] She was the architect of the Healthy Indiana Plan. The health insurance program, designed for people with low income, requires participants to pay into a health savings account and has high deductibles.^[3] According to Verma, "you have to make your contribution every month, with a 60-day grace period. If you don't make the contribution, you're out of the program for 12 months. It's a strong personal responsibility mechanism." The plan also removed preventive care because people could not afford it.^[6] The Healthy Indiana Plan received support from the Indiana legislature and passed into law in January 2008.^[3] She later created the related "HIP 2.0" under Governor Mike Pence.^[3]

In 2014, an article in The Indianapolis Star raised concerns over a potential conflict of interest arising from Verma's dual roles as both a health care consultant for Indiana and an employee of a Hewlett-Packard division that is among Indiana's largest Medicaid vendors. As of 2014, SVC Inc. had been awarded over $3.5 million in Indiana state contracts. Verma was concurrently employed with Hewlett-Packard, earning over $1 million during a period when the company had secured $500 million in state contracts.^[3][7]

Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services

On November 29, 2016, President-elect Donald Trump nominated Verma to serve as administrator of the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, the Health Department agency that oversees the Obamacare insurance markets, Medicare, and Medicaid.^[8]

Awards and affiliations

Verma was awarded the Sagamore of the Wabash by Governor Pence in 2016. A graduate of the Richard G. Lugar Excellence in Public Service Series, she was also selected for the American Enterprise Institute's Leadership Network.^[9] Verma was a participant in the Republican Governor's Public Policy Committee on Medicaid reform. She contributed to the report "A New Medicaid: A Flexible, Innovation and Accountable Future." Verma has also presented to the Medicaid Task Force of the Committee on Energy and Commerce and provided testimony before the U.S. House Energy Subcommittee on Health.^[4]

References

External links

• Official biography from SVC Inc.
• Roob, Mitchell; Verma, Seema (May 1, 2008). "Indiana: Health Care Reform Amidst Colliding Values". Health Affairs. 
• Seema Verma (September 19, 2016). Why Indiana H.I.P. 2.0 Works & Obamacare Fails (Radio broadcast). 91.3 WIBC. Retrieved November 29, 2016.