Medicaid and CHIP Services director Brian Neale leaving CMS

Brian Neale, director of the Center for Medicaid and CHIP Services and deputy administrator at CMS, will leave the job next month just as changes to Medicaid he helped champion are taking effect.

CMS Administrator Seema Verma, MPH, didn’t specify where Neale is going or why he decided to depart after a year at the agency in an email to CMS staff members. She did note his contributions to the recent guidance released by CMS on how states can impose work requirements on Medicaid beneficiaries through Section 1115 demonstration waivers.

“We expect more states to take advantage of the new demonstration opportunity to promote community engagement among Medicaid beneficiaries, a policy Brian improved significantly as he guided its development,” she wrote.

Soon after the guidance was released, Kentucky became the first state approved for including work requirements in its Medicaid program. Ten other states have applied asking similar requirements. Those changes may be put on hold, however, as advocacy groups have threatened to sue over the policy. Additionally, Sen. Ron Wyden, D-Oregon, has questioned whether Verma violated her ethics pledge by being involved with the Kentucky waiver.

Like Verma, Neale has close ties to Vice President Mike Pence. Most of his experience in government came under Pence, first working in his congressional office, then doing a two-year stint as healthcare policy director when Pence became governor of Indiana.