Andrew Slavitt has huge responsibilities and challenges ahead as the new second-in-command at the CMS.
Slavitt, 47, was appointed last month by HHS Secretary Sylvia Mathews Burwell to succeed Jonathan Blum as the agency's principal deputy administrator. He oversees day-to-day decisionmaking regarding Obamacare implementation, Medicare, Medicaid, the Children's Health Insurance Program, payment and delivery reform, healthcare fraud and improving health outcomes.
Slavitt most recently worked as group executive vice president of Optum, owned by UnitedHealth Group. He was one of the executives helping with the so-called tech surge to fix HealthCare.gov when it was floundering last fall. Slavitt has an MBA from Harvard. He served as CEO at UnitedHealth's Ingenix unit before moving to Optum.
His appointment is part of Burwell's management restructuring at the CMS to create clearer lines of authority. Some observers said a lack of clear leadership contributed to the botched launch of the federal exchange and recommended creating a dedicated executive position for an exchange CEO.