Tag: Alex Azar

Scoop: Trump and Pence intervene in clash between top health officials

Axios logoThe working relationship between the Trump administration’s top health officials, HHS Secretary Alex Azar and CMS Administrator Seema Verma, has grown so dysfunctional that both President Trump and Vice President Pence have intervened to try to salvage the situation, according to three senior administration officials.

Why it matters: It’s an extraordinary intervention at the highest levels of government. And it highlights, as Politico extensively reported, the White House’s urgent desire for the heads of Health and Human Services and the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services to repair their working relationship.

Behind the scenes: Azar had a clearing of the air meeting with Verma on Wednesday, at Pence’s request, according to two administration officials. This wasn’t the first time the White House had to intervene to fix this broken relationship at the top of HHS.

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HHS secretary: Separating immigrant families is ‘one of the great acts of American generosity’

The following article by Rebekah Entralgo was posted on the ThinkProgress.org website July 11, 2018:

Secretary Azar boasted of the Trump administration’s abusive policy, claiming his department had nothing to hide.

Alex Azar, HHS Secretary. Credit:  Win McNamee, Getty Images

The same day the federal government missed a court-imposed deadline to reunite roughly 84 children under the age of 5 with their families — after being forcibly separated from them at the U.S.-Mexico border — Secretary of Health and Human Services Alex Azar appeared on CNN to defend how his agency has handled the recent immigration crisis.

“We have nothing to hide about how we operate these facilities,” Azar told CNN’s Wolf Blitzer Tuesday night, referring to the juvenile and “tender age” facilities in which many of the separated children are currently being detained, which HHS officials have barred media outlets and public figures from filming or visiting unannounced.

Speaking to the conditions in which the children are being held, he added, “It is one of the great acts of American generosity and charity, what we are doing for these unaccompanied kids.”

View the complete article on the ThinkProgress.org website here.

HHS Political Appointees’ Résumés Show Ties to Price, Pence

The following article by Lauren Clason and Mary Ellen McIntire was posted on the Roll Call website January 8, 2018:

President Donald Trump and Former Secretary of Health and Human Services Tom Price arrive in the Capitol to meet with House Republicans on March 21.

Political appointees at the Department of Health and Human Services include at least 16 staffers with ties to former Secretary Tom Price and at least 12 with connections to Vice President Mike Penceor Indiana, a review of 129 résumés of appointed staffers in the department shows.

Pence’s influence over the agency can be seen in the appointment of Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services Administrator Seema Verma, who worked closely with the former Indiana governor to expand Medicaid in that state, and the appointment of Verma’s deputy Brian Neale, who currently oversees Medicaid and served as Pence’s health care policy director in Indiana. A number of staffers also have ties to conservative groups close to Pence, such as the Heritage Foundation and anti-abortion organizations. Continue reading “HHS Political Appointees’ Résumés Show Ties to Price, Pence”