WASHINGTON BUREAU — The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) is moving the new Office of Consumer Information and Insurance Oversight into the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services.
In a related move, Jay Angoff, the first OCIIO director, has become a "special assistant" to HHS Secretary Kathleen Sebelius.
The name of the OCIIO will be changed to the Center for Consumer Information and Insurance Oversight (CCIIO), and the CCIIO will be under the oversight of CMS officials, rather than directly under Sebelius.
The CCIIO will be led by CMS Principal Deputy Administrator Marilyn Tavenner.
"As Jay goes to the secretary's office, we should anticipate his departure is imminent," a health care industry consultant says in a note to clients.
Angoff is a former Missouri insurance commissioner and plaintiff's lawyer.
The Affordable Care Act, the package that includes the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (PPACA), calls for the consumer to manage implementation of many act provisions, including reviews of health insurance rate increase requests and the development of a new health insurance exchange system that would distribute subsidized health coverage to individuals and small groups.
Republicans in Congress are trying to repeal the act and, if repeal fails, to block implementation by withholding funding.
Sebelius announced the changes in a letter sent to Rep. Harold Rogers, R-Ky., incoming chairman of the House Appropriations Committee.
"Now that we are moving into an operational phase of healthcare reform legislation implementation, we believe an operating division such as CMS has the best resources, in terms of expertise and administrative processes, to achieve successful implementation," Sebelius says in the letter.
She says the reorganization "will result in administrative savings and successful implementation."
Industry officials and consultants who asked not to be named say the move was obviously made to protect the consumer office against the possibility of Republicans trying to defund it.
Several of these sources said CMS may try to save money by cutting the CCIIO staff.
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