Norwalk to Succeed McClellan at CMS

CMS Deputy Administrator Leslie Norwalk, J.D., has been named acting administrator of the agency effective Oct. 15. Norwalk will succeed Mark McClellan, M.D., Ph.D., in the post.

Taking Norwalk's position as deputy administrator will be Herbert Kuhn, currently the head of the CMS Center for Medicare Management.

As CMS administrator, Norwalk will oversee Medicaid and Medicare, including the continued implementation of the Medicare Part D prescription drug program. Norwalk has served as CMS' chief operating officer and acting director of the CMS Center for Beneficiary Choices. Prior to joining CMS, she was an attorney in the Washington office of Epstein, Becker and Green.

Before joining CMS in 2004, Kuhn had been corporate vice president for advocacy at Premier Inc., a nonprofit hospital alliance and, before that, vice president for federal relations at the American Hospital Association's Washington office.