GOVERNMENT

Scully leaves CMS for a private-sector job

The Medicare chief changed the agency's name and tried to improve its responsiveness.

By Markian Hawryluk, AMNews staff. Dec. 22/29, 2003.

Washington -- The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services has lost its best administrator ever. Tom Scully's "best ever" label became a standard joke in introducing the outspoken official at Capitol Hill appearances after he renamed the agency, thus becoming the first, and so far only, CMS administrator.

After helping shepherd through Congress the most sweeping reform of Medicare since its inception, however, Scully announced earlier this month that he would leave the agency effective Dec. 15. He has been wooed by a number of law firms and private equity firms to advise clients on the new legislation. At press time, Scully had not revealed his new employer.

"It has been a great run," Scully said in announcing his resignation. "I have loved every minute of this job and am grateful to the president for the opportunity to serve."

In 2001 Scully became the ninth administrator of the agency, then known as the Health Care Financing Administration, and immediately began working to improve its responsiveness and accessibility. He implemented open-door forums allowing physicians and other health practitioners to address Medicare or Medicaid concerns with high-level CMS officials on a monthly basis.

"Tom Scully is leaving a different agency from the one he took over in 2001, an agency that has been re-energized by his leadership," said his boss, Dept. of Health and Human Services Secretary Tommy Thompson.

Thompson has indicated he, too, will not remain in his post. After the 2004 elections, he plans to start his own business.

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