HEALTHCARE/HHS/OBAMACARE(ACA): “The next head of the Department of Health and Human Services will be handed an agency facing criticism from state officials and internal strife.
HHS, which employs about 80,000 people, oversees Medicaid, Medicare, the Affordable Care Act, and such agencies as the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. It has been caught up in the fallout over the Republicans’ failure to repeal the law legislatively and an ethics scandal over government-funded travel that led to the resignation of Secretary Tom Price in September.
President Donald Trump has nominated Alex Azar, a former deputy secretary for the agency, to succeed Dr. Price. Mr. Azar will have his first nomination hearing within weeks.
While Mr. Azar is making his way through the nomination process, HHS is facing criticism from some state officials and its own current and former employees for problems that range from being unresponsive on important decisions to neglecting staff advice, while several key positions remain unfilled.”
-Stephanie Armour, Louise Radnofsky, and Anna Wilde Mathews, “New Health and Human Services Secretary Would Inherit Troubled Agency,” The Wall Street Journal online, Nov. 17, 2017 05:30am