Tavenner confirmation hearing not in the Senate's plans

May 23 2012

The Wall Street Journal reports that, after months of speculation, Senate Democrats have indicated they aren't planning a confirmation hearing for Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services acting administrator Marilyn Tavenner.   

The Wall Street Journal's Washington Wire: No Confirmation Hearing Planned For Marilyn Tavenner
Senate Democrats have said they aren't planning a confirmation hearing for Marilyn Tavenner, the acting top official at the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, ending months of speculation over whether they would try to get the agency its first permanent leader since 2006 (Radnofsky, 5/21).

Other Capitol Hill news includes reports about continuing efforts to address the Medicare physician payment problem and about the results of the GOP investigation into White House efforts to pass the health law -

CQ HealthBeat: Pursuing A Permanent Payment Patch
The medical industry is hoping this will be the year when Congress fixes, once and for all, the recurring problem of the formula that dictates how much Medicare reimburses physicians. For almost a decade, Congress has overridden the reductions in payment rates dictated by the Sustainable Growth Rate, a 1997 formula designed to keep Medicare costs under control. But lawmakers have never come up with a way to handle the problem permanently. In the past few weeks, however, they have started to talk about possible solutions in a way they haven't before (Ethridge, 5/21).

Roll Call: Health Care Probe May Ensnare Jim Messina
House Republicans are preparing to unveil results of an investigation into deals the White House made to help pass the health care overhaul, and the findings might saddle Jim Messina, President Barack Obama's campaign manager, with unwanted distractions. Rep. Michael Burgess told Roll Call that Messina's name was "the one that came up most consistently" in emails and other documents about the deals. The Texas Republican, a member of the Energy and Commerce Subcommittee on Oversight and Investigations, said Messina might have violated the Presidential Records Act by using a personal email account to discuss official White House business (Strong, 5/22).