President Nominates Professor to Health Job

By ROBERT PEAR

Published: April 19, 2010

WASHINGTON — President Obama on Monday nominated Dr. Donald M. Berwick, a health policy expert, to be administrator of the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, which runs health programs insuring nearly one-third of all Americans.

Dr. Berwick, a pediatrician, is president of the Institute for Healthcare Improvement in Cambridge, Mass., and a professor at Harvard Medical School and the Harvard School of Public Health. He personifies Mr. Obama’s determination to shake up the health care system. Working with numerous hospitals and clinics around the country, Dr. Berwick has shown that it is possible to reduce medical errors and improve the quality of care while reducing its cost.

Representative Sander M. Levin, Democrat of Michigan and chairman of the House Ways and Means Committee, described Dr. Berwick as “a visionary leader.”

Senator Max Baucus, Democrat of Montana and chairman of the Senate Finance Committee, said he looked forward to “an expeditious review” of the nomination, which is subject to confirmation by the Senate. Senators are likely to use the confirmation hearing to pursue questions about the new health care law.

If confirmed, Dr. Berwick would carry out major provisions of the law expanding Medicaid, for low-income people, and slowing the projected growth of Medicare, for older Americans.

At a recent conference of his institute, Dr. Berwick said health care was just a means to an end.

“Health care has no intrinsic value at all, none,” Dr. Berwick said. “Health does. Joy does. Peace does.”

Accordingly, he said: “The best health care is the very least health care we need to gain the long, full and joyous lives that we really want. The best hospital bed is empty, not full. The best CT scan is the one we don’t need to take. The best doctor visit is the one we don’t need to have.”

The Medicare and Medicaid agency has been without a permanent chief since October 2006.