Meena Seshamani, M.D, Ph.D., is the deputy administrator and director of the Center for Medicare, where she is leading the center’s efforts in serving people 65 or older, people with disabilities, and people with end-stage renal disease who rely on Medicare coverage. She is an accomplished, strategic leader with a deep understanding of health economics and a heartfelt commitment to outstanding patient care. Her diverse background as a health care executive, health economist, physician, and health policy expert has given her a unique perspective on how health policy impacts the real lives of patients.
Before coming to the Center for Medicare, Dr. Seshamani served as vice president of clinical care transformation at MedStar Health, where she conceptualized, designed, and implemented population health and value-based care initiatives and served on the senior leadership of this 10-hospital, 300+ outpatient care site health system. The care models and service lines under her leadership, including community health, geriatrics, and palliative care, have been nationally recognized by the Institute for Healthcare Improvement and others. She also cared for patients as an Assistant Professor of Otolaryngology-Head and Neck Surgery at the Georgetown University School of Medicine.
Dr. Seshamani also brings decades of policy experience to her role, including recently serving on the leadership of the Biden-Harris Transition HHS Agency Review Team. Prior to MedStar Health, she was Director of the Office of Health Reform at the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, where she drove strategy and led implementation of the Affordable Care Act across the department, including coverage policy, delivery system reform, and public health policy.
Dr. Seshamani received her B.A. with honors in business economics from Brown University, her M.D. from the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine, and her Ph.D. in health economics from the University of Oxford, where she was a Marshall Scholar. She completed her residency training in Otolaryngology-Head and Neck Surgery at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, and practiced as a head and neck surgeon at Kaiser Permanente in San Francisco.