Top U.S. Health Official Marilyn Tavenner to Step Down

By Louise Radnofsky 

Marilyn Tavenner, the top official at the U.S. agency overseeing the troubled rollout of the health law and the Medicare insurance program for the elderly, is leaving her post in February, agency officials confirmed Friday.

Ms. Tavenner will be replaced as administrator at the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services by Andy Slavitt, who will ultimately need Senate confirmation if he is to become a permanent replacement. As a top executive at UnitedHealth Group, Mr. Slavitt had worked closely with the agency on HealthCare.gov's technical issues and was brought in-house in 2014.

News of Ms. Tavenner's plans to leave after five years at the agency was first reported by the Huffington Post.

Ms. Tavenner had come to CMS from Virginia state government, where she was health secretary. She started her career as a nurse, and rose to executive positions in the private-hospital sector. At the time of her nomination to CMS, she had been considered one of the most uncontroversial candidates to succeed Don Berwick, who never got Senate confirmation and instead served as acting administrator.

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