Official: Obama expected to name head of Medicare, Medicaid

By Dan Lothian, CNN White House Correspondent

An official stressed that President Obama has not yet appointed a new Medicare and Medicaid administrator.

STORY HIGHLIGHTS

Administration official says nomination to head Medicare, Medicaid is expected
Official: President's nomination of Donald Berwick "has not been made yet"
Berwick is the president and CEO of the Institute for Healthcare Improvement
Centers for Medicare and Medicaid has been without a permanent chief since '06

RELATED TOPICS

Washington (CNN) -- President Obama is expected to nominate a Massachussetts pediatrician and Harvard University professor to oversee Medicare and Medicaid, a senior administration official told CNN on Saturday.

The official stressed that the nomination of Donald Berwick "has not been made yet."

Berwick is the president and chief executive officer of the Institute for Healthcare Improvement, described on its Web site as "one of the nation's leading authorities on health care quality and improvement."

He is also listed as a clinical professor of pediatrics and health care policy at Harvard Medical School.

The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid is the federal agency that oversees the Medicare and Medicaid programs; the agency is part of the Department of Health and Human Services.

Obama's decision to appoint Berwick to head the health care-focused agency comes just days after passage of Democrats' health care legislation.

The agency has been without a permanent administrator since Mark McClellan resigned in 2006.