If Berwick exits, is quality care 'in jeopardy?'

National Journal: VIDEO: 'Quality Care' Mission In Jeopardy If Obama's Medicare Chief Exits
As Medicare is put under the microscope in the debt-ceiling talks, the clock is running out for Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services Administrator Donald Berwick to be confirmed by Congress. Berwick took the job of director of CMS in July of last year, getting a recess appointment from President Obama while the Senate was out on break. Republicans have been blocking the confirmation of Berwick, whose controversial academic writings about rationing health care sparked the "death-panel" debate in 2009. If he isn't confirmed, his term will end in December. So what does that mean for health care policy? (McCarthy, 7/11).

---

This article was reprinted from kaiserhealthnews.org with permission from the Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation. Kaiser Health News, an editorially independent news service, is a program of the Kaiser Family Foundation, a nonpartisan health care policy research organization unaffiliated with Kaiser Permanente.