Former top health regulator to head U.S. health insurer lobby group

[July 16, 2015]  NEW YORK (Reuters) - Marilyn Tavenner, former top U.S. health insurer regulator, will be the next leader of the insurance industry lobbying group America's Health Insurance Plans, the group said on Wednesday.

Tavenner was Administrator of the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, a division of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, and left the agency in February. Before that she was the Virginia secretary of health and human services.

In addition to the Medicare and Medicaid programs, Tavenner was responsible for the individual insurance created under the national healthcare reform law, often called Obamacare. She was confirmed by the Senate in May of 2013 and oversaw the troubled rollout of Healthcare.gov.

Earlier this month, the White House named Andy Slavitt, the acting administrator of CMS, to the position on a permanent basis.

The AHIP job opened up when longtime president, Karen Ignagni, decided to step down to run New York's Emblem Health.

(Reporting by Caroline Humer; Editing by Bernard Orr)

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