The United States secretary of health and human services is the head of the United States Department of Health and Human Services,and serves as the principal advisor to the president of the United States on all health matters. The secretary is a member of the United States Cabinet. The office was formerly Secretary of Health,Education,and Welfare. In 1980,the Department of Health,Education,and Welfare was renamed the Department of Health and Human Services,and its education functions and Rehabilitation Services Administration were transferred to the new United States Department of Education. Patricia Roberts Harris headed the department before and after it was renamed.
The Centers for Medicare &Medicaid Services (CMS),is a federal agency within the United States Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) that administers the Medicare program and works in partnership with state governments to administer Medicaid,the Children's Health Insurance Program (CHIP),and health insurance portability standards. In addition to these programs,CMS has other responsibilities,including the administrative simplification standards from the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996 (HIPAA),quality standards in long-term care facilities through its survey and certification process,clinical laboratory quality standards under the Clinical Laboratory Improvement Amendments,and oversight of HealthCare.gov. CMS was previously known as the Health Care Financing Administration (HCFA) until 2001.
Barack Obama assumed office as President of the United States on January 20,2009,and his term ended on January 20,2017. The president has the authority to nominate members of his Cabinet to the United States Senate for confirmation under the Appointments Clause of the United States Constitution.
Mary Wakefield is an American nurse and health care administrator,who served in the Obama administration as acting United States Deputy Secretary of Health and Human Services from 2015 to 2017,and as head of the Health Resources and Services Administration from 2009 to 2015.
Andrew M. Slavitt is an American businessman and healthcare advisor who served as the acting administrator of the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services from March 2015 to January 2017 and as a temporary Senior Advisor to the COVID-19 Response Coordinator in the Biden administration. A leader of the team that helped to repair the healthcare.gov website after its initial rollout,he was nominated by Barack Obama to run CMS in July 2015. In January 2021,Slavitt accepted a temporary role as Senior Pandemic Advisor to President Joe Biden’s COVID-19 pandemic response team. He stepped down from that role in June 2021.
Neera Tanden is an American political consultant and government official serving as Director of the United States Domestic Policy Council since 2023. Tanden previously served as a senior advisor and staff secretary to President Joe Biden from 2021 to 2023 and as president of the Center for American Progress (CAP),a center-left policy research and advocacy organization,where she worked in different capacities since its founding in 2003 until she joined the Biden administration in 2021.
Marilyn Barbour Tavenner is an American government official and health-care executive who served as the Administrator of the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services,an agency of the United States Department of Health and Human Services,from 2011 to 2015.
Regina McCarthy is an American air quality expert who served as the first White House national climate advisor from 2021 to 2022. She previously served as the thirteenth Administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency from 2013 to 2017.
Seema Verma is a General Manager and Senior Vice President at Oracle Corporation. She is the former administrator of the Centers for Medicare &Medicaid Services in the Donald Trump administration. During her tenure,she was involved in efforts to repeal the Affordable Care Act,as well as reduce Medicaid benefits and increase restrictions on Medicaid. She was embroiled in ethics and legal controversies related to her use of taxpayer money while in office.
Matthew Thomas Schelp is a United States district judge of the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Missouri.
Andrea Joan Palm is an American government health advisor who is the United States Deputy Secretary of Health and Human Services in the Biden administration. Previously,Palm served as secretary-designee of the Wisconsin Department of Health Services from 2019 to 2021 in the administration of Governor Tony Evers,an office she was never sworn into due to Republican opposition in the Wisconsin Senate.
Joe Biden assumed office as President of the United States on January 20,2021. The president has the authority to nominate members of his Cabinet to the United States Senate for confirmation under the Appointments Clause of the United States Constitution.
Elizabeth Richter is an American government official who served as the acting administrator of the Centers for Medicare &Medicaid Services from January to May 2021.
Helen L. Smits was a health policy influencer and advocate in the United States,and lent her voice to several healthcare initiatives abroad. Most notably,she was a recipient of the Fulbright scholarship and served under the Carter and Clinton administrations. She also held positions in government organizations including the National Institutes of Health (NIH) and Healthcare Financing Administration.
Sharon L. Cromer is an American diplomat who has served as the United States ambassador to the Gambia since March 2022.
Jennifer Sung is a United States circuit judge of the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit.
Charlotte Noelle Sweeney is an American lawyer from Colorado who serves as a United States district judge of the United States District Court for the District of Colorado.
Holly Aiyisha Thomas is an American attorney serving as a United States circuit judge of the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit. She previously served as a judge of the Los Angeles County Superior Court from 2018 to 2022.
Elizabeth Fowler is an American lawyer who is Director of the Center for Medicare and Medicaid Innovation. She previously served under President Barack Obama at the National Economic Council. In 2022,she was included by Stat News on their list of leaders in the life sciences and she was elected a Member of the National Academy of Medicine.
