CMMI Names Shannon Sartin Chief Technology Officer

At the beginning of the year, federal health officials announced that Brad Smith, most recently the chief operating officer of Anthem’s diversified business group, would serve as the new director of the Center for Medicare & Medicaid Innovation (CMMI), replacing Adam Boehler. Joining Smith there will be Shannon Sartin, who has been named CMMI’s inaugural chief technology officer.

Sartin, who had served as executive director of digital service at HHS/CMS since 2017, stepped down from that post in October 2019. She closed a recent post on Medium saying, “Starting next week, I will be continuing my work at CMS as the Chief Technology Officer at CMMI, a team that I am beyond thrilled to join!”

 Created under the Obama administration, CMMI is charged with piloting, testing and evaluating alternative payment models—such as bundled payment models, for example—with the intent of increasing quality and efficiency, while reducing program expenditures under Medicare, Medicaid and the Children’s Health Insurance Program (CHIP).

Sarton’s article goes into fascinating detail about her time leading the digital service, describing the first few months as a “trial by fire.”

“In my first three months there were:

• Responding to a major security incident (which turned out to not actually be an incident at all)

• Launching the largest reform effort in Medicare’s history, The Quality Payment Program alongside our CMS colleagues

• Transitioning the Digital Service team out of a project that consumed every essence of our identity

• And quickly losing a large portion of that team who, like the Director before me, had been there much longer than anyone initially intended.”