Indian-American health policy expert Meena Seshamani appointed to key Medicare position

  Indian-American health policy expert Dr. Meena Seshamani, who served on the leadership of the Biden-Harris transition Health and Human Services (HHS) agency review team, has been appointed as the Director of the US Centre for Medicare.

Sheshamani, 43, will lead the Centre’s efforts in serving the people 65 or older, people with disabilities and people with End-Stage Renal Disease that rely on Medicare coverage.

Dr. Seshamani's position as Deputy Administrator and Director of Centre for Medicare started on July 6.

“Dr. Meena Seshamani brings her diverse background as a health care executive, health economist, physician and health policy expert to CMS,” said CMS (Centres for Medicare & Medicaid Services) Administrator Chiquita Brooks-LaSure.

“Providing quality health care to the people who rely on Medicare and advancing health equity as we do it is a priority for CMS. I am delighted to say Dr. Seshamani will bring her unique perspective on how health policy impacts the real lives of patients to her leadership role as Deputy Administrator and Director of the Centre for Medicare,” she said.

Seshamani most recently served as Vice President of Clinical Care Transformation at MedStar Health, where she conceptualised, designed, and implemented population health and value-based care initiatives and served on the senior leadership of the 10 hospital, 300+ outpatient care site health system, a media release said.

The care models and service lines under her leadership, including community health, geriatrics, and palliative care, have been nationally recognised by the Institute for Healthcare Improvement and others.

She also cared for patients as an Assistant Professor of Otolaryngology-Head and Neck Surgery at the Georgetown University School of Medicine, it said.

Dr. Seshamani also brings decades of policy experience to her role, including recently serving on the leadership of the Biden-Harris transition HHS agency review team.

Prior to MedStar Health, she was director of the office of Health Reform at the US Department of Health and Human Services, where she drove strategy and led implementation of the Affordable Care Act across the department, including coverage policy, delivery system reform, and public health policy, the statement said.

She received her B.A. with Honours in Business Economics from Brown University, her M.D. from the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine, and her Ph.D. in Health Economics from the University of Oxford, where she was a Marshall Scholar.

She completed her residency training in Otolaryngology-Head and Neck Surgery at the Johns HTI Lopkins University School of Medicine, and practiced as a head and neck surgeon at Kaiser Permanente in San Francisco.