STAT+: Medicare director, at JPM conference, gives tips on how to lead the nation's largest payer

SAN FRANCISCO — Over the last three years that Meena Seshamani has led the Center for Medicare, the service has seen sweeping change — much of it driven by the passage of the Inflation Reduction Act of 2022, she said. This week, Seshamani highlighted just a few of these changes, including caps on certain drug prices, as some of her proudest accomplishments — and gave some parting advice on how she did it for the next leaders of Medicare.

“I think what we have done has very much been engaging everyone in the ecosystem. Utilizing data, getting comments from people — one of the favorite parts of my job was traveling the country and talking to people who rely on Medicare,” Seshamani said at a STAT event alongside the J.P. Morgan Healthcare Conference here in San Francisco. “I think that is the foundation of not only good policymaking, but also good operations.”

Medicare is the largest health care payer in the country, paying more than a trillion dollars in claims a year. “It’s important for anyone in that role and anyone leading a team of over 1,000 people, over 10,000 contractors, to approach that in a thoughtful manner,” Seshamani continued.

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