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Senate Confirms Tom Price as Secretary of HHS

Price is expected to carry out the repeal and replacement of the Affordable Care Act, among other healthcare initiatives.

Juliet Van Wagenen

Juliet is the senior web editor for BizTech and HealthTech magazines. In her six years as a journalist she has covered everything from aerospace to indie music reviews — but she is unfailingly partial to covering technology.

HSS Secretary Tom Price. Photo: Wikimedia The Senate confirmed Rep. Tom Price of Georgia as the next Secretary of the Department of Health and Human Services early Friday morning.

Price will oversee the $1.1 billion HHS budget provided for fiscal year 2017. He is expected to carry out the repeal and replacement of the Affordable Care Act during his tenure as HHS secretary, NPR reports, in addition to overseeing Medicare and Medicaid and other initiatives laid out in the department’s 2017 budget.

“Dr. Price is uniquely aware of the healthcare challenges facing our nation. He has been an advocate for utilizing health IT to improve health outcomes for patients, while decreasing unnecessary burden on providers,” the Healthcare Information and Management Systems Society (HIMSS) said in a statement released Feb. 10.

Price replaces Norris Cochran, the acting secretary of HHS.