RALEIGH, N.C. (AP) - A former federal official chosen by North Carolina Democratic Gov. Roy Cooper to lead the state’s massive health agency cleared her first hurdle to confirmation Wednesday, avoiding potential pitfalls about Medicaid expansion and the health care overhaul that she helped carry out.
The Senate Health Care Committee unanimously supported Dr. Mandy Cohen to lead the Department of Health and Human Services after less than an hour of questioning. Committee members sounded impressed with Cohen’s credentials and health knowledge, and their initial interactions with her. DHHS receives $5 billion in state funds annually and another $9 billion in federal funds for Medicaid alone.
“Certainly your background makes you very qualified to be able to take over this,” Sen. Tommy Tucker R-Union, told Cohen in the meeting.
Cohen, trained as an internal medicine specialist who treated veterans, was a top administrator of President Barack Obama’s health care overhaul. Until January she was chief operating officer for the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services.
“I’m excited to bring those leadership lessons as well as my policy and clinical knowledge to bear here in North Carolina,” Cohen told the committee. “I’m a pragmatic, solution-oriented leader who’s looking to partner with you to find common ground.”
Senators are carrying out a new Republican law approved in December just two weeks before Cooper took office mandating their “advice and consent” on Cabinet secretaries.
Cooper sued to block the confirmation process and votes, but a three-judge panel earlier this month upheld the law, saying the state Constitution doesn’t prevent it. The same panel, in an order announced Wednesday, refused a request by Cooper’s private attorneys to set aside the law while he appeals their earlier decision. Three Cabinet secretaries already have been confirmed by the full Senate.
Cohen, whose recommendation now heads to another committee, received questions about her work history and an action by Cooper - begun before she was sworn in as secretary in early January - to try to expand Medicaid through the federal health care overhaul before the Obama administration ended.
Republican legislative leaders successfully blocked the Cooper administration’s expansion efforts in court, citing state laws preventing expansion without express General Assembly approval.
“Do you agree that attempting to expand Medicaid without the approval of the legislature is a violation of North Carolina law?” Sen. Ralph Hise, R-Mitchell, a committee co-chairman, asked Cohen. She responded it’s clear the legislature has a role in approving Medicaid changes.
“My understanding is that there wouldn’t have been a way to move forward on changing any of the eligibility requirements without coming back here to the General Assembly,” Cohen said.
Cohen also addressed some shortcomings in the federal health care law. They included problems with HealthCare.gov when its computer system crashed after the administration rolled out the program in 2013. Cohen arrived soon after to oversee the insurance marketplaces.
While not involved in the initial system crash, Cohen acknowledged “it was a big public failure” and hoped what she learned in the aftermath will help in her new job. The state department has massive information technology demands.
“What I learned about any big technology failure is it’s not about technology,” Cohen said. “It’s about people, it’s about accountability, it’s about communication, it’s about transparency.”
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