Thomas A. Scully
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'''Thomas A. Scully''' was the Administrator of the [[Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services]] (CMS) from [[2001]]-[[2003]] under [[President]] [[George W. Bush]]. Scully currently is Senior Counsel at Alston & Bird LLP, a [[law firm|law]] and [[lobbying]] firm, where he focuses on [[health care]] regulatory and legislative matters, as well as on advising clients on [[health policy]] and strategies for [[health care delivery]]. Scully is also a general partner at [[Welsh, Carson, Anderson & Stowe]], a [[private equity]] investment firm, where he focuses on [[health care]] investments.
== Biography ==
Scully received his [[Bachelor of Arts|B.A.]] from the [[University of Virginia]] in [[1979]] and his [[Juris Doctor|J.D.]] from [[The Catholic University of America|Catholic University]] in [[1986]].
Scully began his political career by working for [[US Senator]] [[Slade Gorton]] from [[1980]]-[[1985]]. Scully then served as an attorney with [[Akin Gump|Akin, Gump, Strauss, Hauer & Feld LLP]] from [[1985]]-[[1988]]. In [[1988]], Scully joined the [[United States presidential election, 1988|presidential campaign]] of [[President of the United States|President]] [[George H. W. Bush]]. Following that, he worked at the [[White House]] as Deputy Assistant to the President and Counselor to the Director of the [[United States Office of Management and Budget|Office of Management and Budget]] (OMB) from [[1992]]-[[1993]]; and as Associate Director of OMB for Human Resources, Veterans and Labor from [[1989]]-[[1992]].
Scully, then, reentered [[private law|private practice]] with the [[Washington, D.C.]] law firm of Patton Boggs, LLP, where he focused on [[regulation|regulatory]] and legislative work in [[health care]]. In his next role, Scully served as President and CEO of the Federation of American Hospitals from [[1995]]-[[2001]]. The Federation represents over 1,700 privately owned and managed [[hospitals]]. It was from this position that Scully was nominated and confirmed as [[Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services|CMS]] Administrator. In this role, Scully served as the top executive in the management of [[Medicare (United States)|Medicare]], [[Medicaid]], [[SCHIP|the State Children's Health Insurance Program]], and other national health care initiatives.
==CMS Career==
Scully served as [[Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services|CMS]] Administrator from [[May 29]], [[2001]] to [[December 15]], [[2003]]. Scully was noted for his role in passing [[Medicare (United States)|Medicare]] reform legislation, as well as for making the agency and its associated health care providers more open and accountable to the public.
===Medicare Reform===
On [[December 8]] [[2003]], [[President of the United States|President]] [[George W. Bush]] signed the [[Medicare Prescription Drug, Improvement, and Modernization Act]]. Scully's role in the passage of this legislation is perhaps his most notable achievement while at CMS. The bill's most important provision was a prescription drug benefit for Medicare, known as [[Medicare Part D]]. Under Part D, Medicare beneficiaries can receive prescription drug coverage through private insurance plans that are then reimbursed by CMS. Scully had fought for prescription drug coverage throughout his time at CMS beginning with an effort to create a discount prescription drug card. That effort was blocked by lawsuits from the major pharmacy chains that claimed that CMS did not have the statutory authority to create the program.
===Greater Transparency===
In his first speech as [[Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services|CMS]] Administrator, Scully announced that [[Medicare (United States)|Medicare]] would begin collecting and publishing quality data on health care providers across the country including [[hospitals]], [[nursing homes]], home health agencies and [[dialysis]] centers. The program began with the reporting of quality measures for [[nursing homes]] in a handful of states. In those states, 78 percent of the [[nursing homes]] reported that they tried to improve, according to [[Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services|CMS]]. The next step for the program was the publication of performance by [[nursing homes]] nationwide on 10 measures ranging from the percentage of residents with [[pressure sores]] to those in [[physical restraint|physical restraints]]. A $700,000 [[advertising campaign]] publicizing the measures began in conjunction with the release of the data. The intention of the program was to provide consumers with a comparison of [[nursing homes]] while encouraging the homes to get better, according to a statement by Scully at the time. Critics of the program complained that nursing homes were being asked to do additional work in order to report the measures while they were dealing with funding cutbacks.
In July [[2003]], Scully announced that [[Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services|CMS]] would begin paying bonuses to [[hospitals]] that scored well on 35 quality measures. Hospitals nationwide would vie for $7 million in higher reimbursement by providing superior care for five conditions: [[myocardial infarction|heart attack]], [[heart failure]], [[pneumonia]], [[coronary artery bypass surgery]], and [[hip replacement|hip]] and [[knee replacement|knee replacements]]. In addition, CMS posted report cards on the hospitals' performance on the public CMS website. The program was hailed as large step towards improving the American [[health care system]] by leading to a more rational [[health care prices|health care pricing system]].
Scully also initiated a broad public education campaign to improve seniors’ awareness and utilization of their Medicare benefits. The $30 million advertising campaign called, "Helping You Help Yourself was designed to inform Medicare [[beneficiary|beneficiaries]] about the Medicare web site and toll-free phone number, which could answer their questions about health care plans.
===New Name for HCFA===
On [[July 1]], [[2001]] Scully presided over his agency's name change: the [[Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services|Health Care Financing Administration]] would now be called the [[Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services]]. [[DHHS|Department of Health and Human Services]] Secretary [[Tommy Thompson]] explained that in order "to give the agency a new direction, a new spirit, it is necessary that we give it a new name - one that truly reflects the agency's vital mission to serve millions of Medicare and Medicaid beneficiaries across America."
=== Controversy at CMS ===
Scully's CMS career was not without conflict. According to an internal investigation by the [[DHHS|Department of Health and Human Services]], Scully took part in efforts to intentionally withhold cost estimates of the [[Medicare Part D|Medicare prescription drug benefit]] from Congress while it was being considered for law. A report on the investigation said that Scully threatened to fire Medicare's chief actuary, Richard Foster, if he provided the data to Congress. However, the report found that neither the threat nor the withholding of information violated any criminal law. Scully denied threatening Foster, but acknowledged having told him to withhold information from Congress. Foster estimated that the Medicare legislation would cost $500-$600 billion over 10 years. The White House told Congress the cost would not exceed $400 billion. A subsequent report by the [[Congressional Research Service]] concluded that Scully and the Bush administration broke federal law by telling Foster to withhold information from Congress because it violated Congress' "right to receive truthful information from federal agencies to assist in its legislative functions is clear and unassailable."
In [[2003]], the Gallup Organization filed a $5 million lawsuit against him alleging that he asked an [[OMB]] aide to investigate a Gallup executive who had accused CMS of unfairly favoring a competing firm in a hospital-survey project.
While he was participating in the crafting of the [[Medicare Prescription Drug, Improvement, and Modernization Act]], Scully interviewed with law firms and private equity firms that might have been affected by the bill, for which he sought and received a waiver from the top ethics officer for the Department of Health and Human Services.
== External links ==
===Former and Present Employers===
* [http://www.akingump.com/ Akin, Gump, Strauss, Hauer & Feld LLP]
* [http://www.whitehouse.gov/omb/ United States Office of Management and Budget]
* [http://www.pattonboggs.com/Home.aspx Patton Boggs, LLP]
* [http://www.fahs.com/ Federation of American Hospitals]
* [http://www.cms.hhs.gov/default.asp? Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services]
* [http://www.alston.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=main Alston & Bird LLP]
* [http://www.welshcarson.com/ Welsh, Carson, Anderson, & Stowe]
=== CMS Career ===
* [http://www.cms.hhs.gov/MMAUpdate/ Medicare Modernization Act] — includes PDF file of the law's text.
* [http://www.cms.hhs.gov/NursingHomeQualityInits/ CMS Nursing Home Quality Initiative]
* [http://www.cms.hhs.gov/HospitalQualityInits/ CMS Hospital Quality Initiative]
* [http://www.oig.hhs.gov/publications/docs/press/2004/070704IGStatement.pdf DHHS Report on Scully's involvement in witholding information from Congress regarding Medicare Part D]
== References ==
* New York Times September 8, 2004 by Robert Pear.
* New York Times March 4, 2001 by Robert Pear.
* {{cite web | url = http://dir.salon.com/story/news/feature/2004/04/05/medicare/index.html | title = Lies, bribes and hidden costs | publisher = [[Salon.com]] | author = [[Eric Boehlert|Boehlert, Eric]] | date = [[2004-04-05]] | accessdate = 2007-10-29 }}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Scully, Thomas A.}}
[[Category:Living people]]
[[Category:Medicare and Medicaid (United States)]]