Press Reports: Biden Picks Brooks-LaSure for CMS Administrator job

President Joe Biden has picked Chiquita Brooks-LaSure to be his CMS administrator, according to reports today by the Washington Post and Politico.

Brooks-LaSure was reported to be the frontrunner for the job, so this afternoon's news is not a surprise. Both the Post, which broke the story, and the Politico, depended on unnamed sources. Biden has not made an official announcement.

The selection of Brooks-LaSure means that the FDA commissioner's position is last top healthcare job in the new administration for which Biden hasn't made a pick.

Related: Woodcock vs. Sharfstein for FDA Commissioner

Although not well known outside of healthcare policy circles, Brooks-LaSure is fairly well known within them.

She was a senior HHS official during the Obama administration and played a role in implementing and enforcing the rules of the ACA. She also worked on Capitol Hill as a Democratic staffer on the powerful House Ways and Means Committee, according to the Post. She is currently a managing director at Manatt Health.

The Senate confirms CMS administrators so her reported selection by Biden does not mean automatically stepping into the job.

Brooks-LaSure earned a masters in public policy in 1999 and her bachelor’s degree from Princeton in 1996, according to her LinkedIn profile.