CMS Administrator Mark McClellan, who announced his resignation this week, "will be missed," a New York Times editorial states. "As a pragmatic expert embedded in a fiercely ideological administration, he brought uncommon intelligence, good humor and dispassionate judgment to politically charged issues," according to the editorial. The editorial states that "there were blemishes on his record": as FDA commissioner, McClellan "oversaw the agency's first postponement of a decision on whether to make the controversial morning-after contraceptive available without a prescription ... despite overwhelming evidence [it is] are safe," and as CMS administrator, he "failed to anticipate the administrative glitches that marred the beginnings of the new Medicare prescription drug program." However, "McClellan stepped in to solve the problems and seems mostly to have succeeded," the editorial states. According to the editorial, McClellan "worked to change Medicare ... into a catalyst for reforming the health system." In addition, McClellan has used the "financial clout" of Medicare to "press for studies to prove whether certain expensive treatments really work, and he has prompted efforts to measure the quality of care provided by hospitals, doctors and nursing homes," the editorial states. "Some critics disparage him for toeing the administration line too uncritically. But even they think they will be lucky to get anyone so accomplished as his successor," the editorial concludes (New York Times, 9/8).

"Reprinted with permission from kaisernetwork. You can view the entire Kaiser Daily Health Policy Report, search the archives, or sign up for email delivery at kaisernetwork/dailyreports/healthpolicy. The Kaiser Daily Health Policy Report is published for kaisernetwork, a free service of The Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation . © 2005 Advisory Board Company and Kaiser Family Foundation. All rights reserved.