“Chiquita Brooks-LaSure, the Manatt Phelps & Phillips LLP veteran nominated to run America’s largest health care programs, sketched her vision Thursday on Capitol Hill for telemedicine, clinical trials and other topics that have become increasingly intertwined with issues of race and class during the coronavirus pandemic.”
“Brooks-LaSure, a managing director at Manatt’s legal and consulting group, Manatt Health, fielded questions for nearly three hours during a Senate Finance Committee hearing on President Joe Biden’s nomination of her to serve as administrator of the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services.”
“If confirmed, Brooks-LaSure would become the first Black woman in charge of CMS, which has a panoramic policymaking portfolio and oversight of more than $1 trillion in annual government spending. She used her opening remarks Thursday to spotlight the disproportionate impact of COVID-19 on “’communities of color…’”
“Before joining Manatt in 2016, Brooks-LaSure helped to develop the Affordable Care Act as a staffer on the House Ways and Means Committee, and she helped to implement the law as a deputy director at CMS. The ACA delivered financial help to many lower-income Americans by subsidizing private health insurance, and in her previous stint at CMS, Brooks-LaSure was a point person on efforts to convince disproportionately rural states to accept the ACA’s Medicaid expansion.”
“Race, poverty and geography are closely connected to so-called social determinants of health, which have gained prominence during the pandemic. Senators on Thursday invoked those disparities repeatedly when pressing Brooks-LaSure for her views on their health policy priorities…” Read the full article here.
Source: Manatt Phelps Vet, A Top Biden Health Pick, Hits Capitol Hill — By Jeff Overley, April 15, 2021. Law360.
