Obama Picks CMS Nominee

President Obama announced on Monday his choice of Donald Berwick, a Harvard professor and president of the Institute for Health Care Improvement, to lead the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services.

If confirmed by the Senate, Berwick will be the first permanent CMS administrator since 2006, reports Government Health IT. And he certainly will have his work cut out for him when it comes to health information technology.

CMS will manage $25 billion in payment incentives to qualified physicians and hospitals that become meaningful users of electronic health records starting in 2011 as called for by the stimulus law, according to the article. The agency also will incorporate a new Center for Medicare and Medicaid Innovation, which will test service and payment models and use health IT to coordinate care for chronically ill patients, a provision included in the healthcare reform bill passed last month.