Bush to make HCFA, HHS nominations

President Bush intends to nominate Tom Scully to be Administrator of the Health Care Financing Administration (HCFA), the White House announced today. HCFA, a branch of HHS, runs the Medicare program that provides healthcare for the elderly and has oversight authority over the Medicaid program that provides healthcare for the poor. HCFA establishes reimbursement policies for therapies administered in hospitals under Medicare and for in-patient and out-patient therapies under Medicaid. The agency is likely to be at the center of efforts to add an out-patient prescription drug benefit to Medicare.

Scully is the president and CEO of the Federation of American Hospitals, a trade association that represents for-profit hospitals. He served as deputy assistant to the president and counselor to the director of the Office of Management and Budget from 1992 to 1993. ...