Image overhaul: The new face of CMS

The much-maligned HCFA has given itself a face-lift. But is the renamed agency living up to the hype?

By Markian Hawryluk, AMNews staff. March 4, 2002.

At a recent national health conference in Washington, D.C., Tom Scully, administrator for the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services, did the unthinkable. He responded to a query by giving out his e-mail address.

Scully's openness and accessibility is a sign of the times for the agency that oversees those two massive public programs.

"The perception was that there was this big black box in Baltimore, and if you had a legitimate problem with the agency, you'd better hire five really good lawyers and have a couple of years to waste if you wanted to get it fixed," Scully said.

Now he is trying to transform that image and convince physicians and other health care practitioners that CMS is a changed agency. But while many physicians will admit that more has been done in one year to address regulatory concerns than in any other year in the agency's history, many remain skeptical that any meaningful change will occur.

And a 5.4% reduction in physicians' Medicare payment rates this year won't help Scully's cause.

The scene was set for change when Tommy Thompson, previously Wisconsin governor and long-time critic of the Health Care Financing Administration, was appointed Health and Human Services secretary. Initially, he wanted to break up the agency, but he ultimately decided he could change the culture and image.

That culture has deep roots, Thompson and Scully found.

"Some of it was just attitude and tradition," Scully said. "When you've been pounded by every part of the health care field year after year, you tend to be a bit defensive and unresponsive." [...]