Obama Names Former DaVita Director Health Czar

WASHINGTON—President Obama has named former DaVita director Nancy-Ann DeParle to be the nation’s health czar, who will coordinate the administration’s health policy.

DeParle, 52, will serve as counselor to the president and director of the White House Office for Health Reform. Her position is not subject to Senate confirmation.

Obama made the announcement after he nominated Kansas Gov. Kathleen Sebelius to be the secretary of health and human services. Tom Daschle was originally pegged to fill both roles, but had to bow out after he revealed that he owed more than $140,000 in back taxes.

At a White House news briefing, Obama’s press secretary Robert Gibbs said DeParle will “head health care reform here in the White House.”

DeParle became a director for dialysis provider DaVita 2001. She has also served on the boards of Boston Scientific Corp., Cerner Corp. and Medco Health Solutions. DeParle was also a senior advisor to private-equity firm JPMorgan Partners and an adjunct professor at the WhartonSchool of the University of Pennsylvania.

She was appointed Tennessee Commissioner of Human Services in 1987 at age 30 and oversaw 6,000 agency employees that provided adult rehabilitation services, food stamps, child welfare and cash assistance.

Between 1993 and 1997, DeParle was the Associate Director of the White House Office of Management and Budget. And in 1997, President Clinton appointed her as the Administrator of the Health Care Financing Administration, which is now the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services.

She has also served as a member of the Medicare Payment Advisory Commission, which advises Congress on Medicare payment policy.