America's Health Insurance Plans (AHIP) has brought in Marilyn Tavenner, one of the ultimate health policy insiders to be its new president.
Tavenner, a nurse, is succeeding Karen Ignagni as the lead of the insurers' trade group, the AHIP board announced today. Ignagni left AHIP in May to lead EmblemHealth, a struggling health insurer in New York state.
Daniel Durham, a former pharmaceutical industry policy shaper, has been AHIP's acting CEO.
Tavenner previously was the administrator of the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS), the arm of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) in charge of implementing the provisions in the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (PPACA) that affect Medicare, Medicaid and the commercial health insurance market.
See also: Marilyn Tavenner to leave CMS post
Tavenner, for example, oversaw the team that set up the HealthCare.gov public exchange enrollment system and the PPACA "three R's" risk-management programs. Tavenner also oversaw many wide-reaching CMS programs and regulatory efforts, including the Medicaid nursing home benefits program and Medicare skilled nursing facility programs.
See also: Feds post PPACA lifeboat program numbers
