Biden taps Obama admin veteran Brooks-LaSure to lead CMS

President Joe Biden has officially chosen Chiquita Brooks-LaSure to lead the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS).

Brooks-LaSure most recently served as a managing director for consulting firm Manatt Health. She was previously a former deputy director with the Center for Consumer Information and Insurance Oversight within CMS.

She served as a director of coverage policy at the Department of Health and Human Services and led the agency’s implementation of coverage under the Affordable Care Act and insurance reform policy provisions, according to her bio with Manatt.

Brooks-LaSure has also served as part of the Democratic staff on the House Ways and Means Committee.

If confirmed by the Senate, Brooks-LaSure will likely be tasked with unwinding some of the controversial policies of her predecessor Seema Verma. The Biden administration, for example, quietly sent letters to several states that got approval from the Trump administration to install Medicaid work requirements.

A letter sent to Arizona, dated Friday, said the agency is looking into whether to withdraw the wavier that gave the state the authority to install the work requirements. The agency has “preliminarily determined that allowing work and other community engagement requirements to take effect in Arizona would not promote the objectives of the Medicaid program,” the letter said.