Dr. Meena Seshamani appointed as Deputy Administrator and Director of Center for Medicare

Our Bureau
Washington, DC

Indian American Dr. Meena Seshamani, who served on the leadership of the Biden-Harris transition Health and Human Services (HHS) agency review team, has been appointed as Deputy Administrator and Director of Center for Medicare. She would lead the center’s efforts in serving the people 65 or older, people with disabilities and people with end-stage renal disease that rely on Medicare coverage, Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) announced Tuesday.

“Dr. Meena Seshamani brings her diverse background as a health care executive, health economist, physician and health policy expert to CMS,” said CMS Administrator Chiquita Brooks-LaSure.

“Providing quality health care to the people who rely on Medicare and advancing health equity as we do it is a priority for CMS,” she said in a press release announcing Seshamani’s appointment.

“I am delighted to say Dr. Seshamani will bring her unique perspective on how health policy impacts the real lives of patients to her leadership role as Deputy Administrator and Director of the Center for Medicare.”

Dr. Seshamani most recently served as Vice President of Clinical Care Transformation at MedStar Health, where she conceptualized, designed, and implemented population health and value-based care initiatives and served on the senior leadership of the 10 hospital, 300+ outpatient care site health system.

The care models and service lines under her leadership, including community health, geriatrics, and palliative care, have been nationally recognized by the Institute for Healthcare Improvement and others. She also cared for patients as an Assistant Professor of Otolaryngology-Head and Neck Surgery at the Georgetown University School of Medicine.

Dr. Seshamani also brings decades of policy experience to her role, including recently serving on the leadership of the Biden-Harris transition HHS agency review team.

Prior to MedStar Health, she was Director of the Office of Health Reform at the HHS, where she drove strategy and led implementation of the Affordable Care Act across the Department, including coverage policy, delivery system reform, and public health policy.

Dr. Seshamani received her BA with Honors in Business Economics from Brown University, her MD from the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine, and her PhD in Health Economics from the University of Oxford, where she was a Marshall Scholar.

She completed her residency training in Otolaryngology-Head and Neck Surgery at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, and practiced as a head and neck surgeon at Kaiser Permanente in San Francisco.