Obama health team undergoes reorganization

As work to implement and defend the health law kicks into high gear, the Obama administration is making major changes among the key players.

Kaiser Health News: Obama Health Care Officials Switch Jobs, Reorganize
As newly empowered Republicans step up their assault on the health care overhaul, the Obama administration is making major changes in the team that's implementing and selling the law (Weaver and McGinley, 1/5).

CQ HealthBeat: Sebelius Shuffles Insurance Oversight Office Into CMS, Shifts CLASS Act To Administration On Aging
The reorganization places the HHS Office of Consumer Information and Insurance Oversight (OCIIO) under the control of CMS Principal Deputy Administrator Marilyn Tavenner. OCIIO's current director, Jay Angoff, will serve as an adviser in the HHS Office of the Secretary, advising Sebelius on policy issues pertaining to provisions handled by OCIIO. The changes come amid growing doubts about how the Obama administration can fund implementation of the law in a new session of Congress given the many new Republican members who are hostile to the law. But the HHS source said the staff changes do not stem from the more difficult funding environment and said Sebelius, who served as insurance commissioner and later as governor in Kansas, has always sought ways to manage more efficiently (Reichard, 1/5).

Politico: Obama Administration Reorganizes Health Bureaucracy
The Obama administration will reorganize and expand its infrastructure for health reform implementation, POLITICO has learned. The Office of Consumer Information and Insurance Oversight, a new division created shortly after the passage of health reform to oversee implementation, will move from Health and Human Services to the Center of Medicare and Medicaid Services in two weeks (Kliff, 1/5).

Meanwhile, Obama administration officials urged House Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) to consider improvements made by the health law and the consequences of repealing the measure.

Reuters: Reconsider Health Repeal, Officials Urge Boehner
The Obama administration warned House Republicans on Wednesday that any move to repeal the sweeping healthcare overhaul passed last year would erase critical consumer protections and set the nation back on course toward skyrocketing health costs. The House is already planning a largely symbolic vote on repeal next week, but U.S. Health Secretary Kathleen Sebelius and Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner urged U.S. House of Representatives Speaker John Boehner to consider the benefits of the law before taking any action (Heavey, 1/5).

Modern Healthcare: Cabinet Leaders To Boehner: Reform Law Gives Americans More Freedom
Two days after the incoming House majority scheduled a vote to repeal the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, the secretaries of three federal agencies urged new House Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) to consider the act's accomplishments and the negatives consequences that would result from dissolving it (Zigmond, 1/5).

CNN: Democrats Dismiss GOP Health Care Repeal Push
Top Democrats are dismissing Republicans' plans to ram a repeal of President Barack Obama's health care overhaul through the House of Representatives in the opening days of the new Congress, portraying the move as little more than a hollow nod to the GOP's conservative base (Silverleib, 1/5).