Harvard Professor Donald Berwick Tapped to Oversee Obama’s Medicare/Medicaid Programs
Posted by Kathleen French on March 27, 2010 at 10:40 pm
Bloomberg is reporting that President Obama has chosen current Harvard professor in health policy, Donald Berwick, to be in charge of overseeing the Medicare/Medicaid programs en lieu of the health care bill that passed. Berwick is 63 years old and, if appointed, would be responsible for programs that affect over 100 million people. The position requires a confirmation via the senate, thus the appointment is not set in stone. The article notes that “He would be the first permanent administrator of the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, which is part of the Department of Health and Human Services, since physician Mark McClellan left the position in October 2006. He would lead the department through the implementation of Obama’s $940 billion, decade-long push to cover 32 million uninsured Americans and make medicine more cost-effective.” In addition to being a professor of health policy here at Harvard, Berwick also practices medicine at Boston Children’s Medical Hospital and Mass Gen. Hospital.


Don Berwick is a visionary leader, an irresistable force for excellence in patient care and an immovable object for patient safety. President Obama could not have made a better choice.