| Notes |
Andrew M. Slavitt is a former Acting Administrator of the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS), a position he held from March 2015 to January 2017. A leader of the team that helped to repair the healthcare.gov healthcare exchange website after its problematic rollout, he was nominated by Barack Obama to run CMS in July 2015.[1][2][3]
Contents
1 Early life and career
2 Healthcare.gov rollout
3 Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services
3.1 Principal Deputy Administrator
3.2 Acting Administrator
4 Affordable Care Act "Town Hall Challenge"
5 COVID-19 pandemic response
5.1 Early warnings about COVID-19 impact
5.2 #SaveLives campaign and bipartisan counselor
5.3 Proposed COVID-19 contact tracing plan
6 Personal life
7 References
8 External links
Early life and career
Slavitt graduated from both The College of Arts and Sciences and the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania in 1988, and earned an MBA from the Harvard Business School in 1993.[4]
After graduating from college, he was an investment banker with Goldman Sachs; after receiving his MBA he joined McKinsey & Company as a consultant.[5][6] In 1999 Slavitt founded the healthcare company HealthAllies after the death of his college roommate, Jeff Yurkofsky, from a malignant brain tumor.[7] Slavitt later recounted that the financial strain of Yurkofsky’s death led to Yurkofsky’s widow and children moving into a spare room at Slavitt’s home. He served as CEO of HealthAllies until 2003, when the company was acquired by UnitedHealth Group,[8][9] whereafter he served as CEO of OptumInsight and the Group Executive Vice President for Optum, subsidiaries of UnitedHealth Group.[8][9]
Healthcare.gov rollout
The Obama administration hired UnitedHealth Group's Optum unit, of which Slavitt was an EVP, to lead turnaround efforts for healthcare.gov after a series of technical issues reduced stability and service during the portal’s 2013 launch.[10] In November 2013, Slavitt appeared before Congress to address the healthcare.gov turnaround at a hearing of the United States House of Representatives Committee on Energy and Commerce.
A February 2014 issue of Time called Slavitt’s team “Obama’s Trauma Team”.[11] CMS administrators credited his leadership with allowing the Obama administration to reach a self-imposed goal of providing fully functional Healthcare.gov service by December 1, 2013.[12][12][better source needed] Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services Administrator Marily Tavenner described Slavitt as a “key part of our leadership team to help millions of Americans get affordable health insurance in a whole new way.” |