Together with her family, Seema Verma accepted her commission today as head of  the Center for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS).  Vice-President Mike Pence delivered remarks during the official swearing in ceremony.

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Seema Verma comes to the CMS job with extensive Medicaid experience. Her consulting firm, SVC, Inc., worked closely with Indiana Gov. Mike Pence to design Indiana’s Medicaid expansion under the Affordable Care Act.
The expansion, known as the Healthy Indiana Plan 2.0, went into effect in 2015, and Verma’s involvement in it may prove important as Congress and the Trump administration make decisions on the future of Obamacare.

Indiana’s unique Medicaid expansion was designed to appeal to conservatives. HIP 2.0 asked covered people to make a small monthly payment to access health insurance. A missed payment can result in six-month lockout from insurance coverage. Those provisions aren’t allowed under traditional Medicaid, but Indiana got a federal waiver to implement them.