1. Seema Verma received her bachelor’s degree in life sciences from the University of Maryland—College Park and has a master’s degree in public health from Johns Hopkins University.
2. She founded Indianapolis-based health policy consulting firm SVC Inc. in 2001. The company has worked with several states (Indiana, Iowa, Kentucky, Maine, Michigan, Ohio and Tennessee) to set up Medicaid programs under the Affordable Care Act.
3. Verma is credited with designing the Healthy Indiana Plan, an insurance program for low-income Indiana resident that was created under then-Gov. Mike Pence.
4. The Indianapolis Star raised concerns in 2014 over a potential conflict of interest stemming from Verma being both a health care consultant for Indiana and an employee of a Hewlett-Packard unit that was among the state’s Medicaid vendors.
5. In 2016, Pence awarded Verma the Sagamore of the Wabash, an honorary award in Indiana that “is a personal tribute usually given to those who have rendered a distinguished service to the state or to the governor.”
6. In financial disclosures, Verma reported that within 90 days of her confirmation, she will sell SVC Inc. to Lansing, Michigan-based Health Management Associates.
7. Verma would be in charge of the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, which spends more than $1 trillion annually on programs that provide health care to Americans.
8. During her hearing before the Senate Committee on Finance in February, Verma referenced her Indian-American heritage: “I am extremely humbled as a first-generation American to be sitting before this committee after being nominated by the president of the United States. It is a testament to the fact that the American dream is very much alive for those willing to work for it.”
9. "She grew up in a Democratic household,” says Jugal Verma, Seema’s father. “I am a staunch Democrat."
10. Verma's husband, Sanjay, is a doctor as well. The couple has two children, Maya and Shaan.
Tags: Medicare, Medicaid, health care, Indiana, Mike Pence, public health
Source: By Sara Clarke
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