Sylvia Mathews Burwell Story Archives - West Virginia Public Broadcasting

WVU Speakers, Panelists to Examine Child Health Care Policy

West Virginia University plans to host what it’s calling a summit meeting on health care policy for children on Thursday.

Scheduled speakers include former U. S. Sen. John D. Rockefeller IV and former U.S. Dept. of Health and Human Services Secretary and now American University President Sylvia Mathews Burwell.

Panelists will discuss challenges with children’s access to quality and affordable health care, including the 20-year-old Children’s Health Insurance Program, or CHIP, which provides low-cost health coverage to children in families that earn too much money to qualify for Medicaid.

WV Receives $1 Million for Disease Prevention

West Virginia has been awarded more than $1 million for chronic disease prevention programs.

U.S. Health and Human Services Secretary Sylvia M. Burwell announced two grants on Thursday for state and local programs. The programs are aimed at preventing heart disease, stroke, diabetes and other chronic illnesses.

The grants are funded in part by the Affordable Care Act. They will be administered by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

The CDC’s director, Dr. Tom Frieden, says in a news release that tobacco use, high blood pressure and obesity are leading preventable causes of death in the U.S.

U.S. Plans W.Va. Refunds Under Affordable Care Act

More than $900,000 in refunds from insurance companies are headed to 8,300 consumers in West Virginia.

Health and Human Services Secretary Sylvia M. Burwell announced the payments Thursday, crediting the Affordable Care Act.

Burwell said the refunds in West Virginia will average $177 per family.

The payments are being made under a provision of the act that requires insurers to make the refunds if they spend an excessive amount on red tape and bonuses for executives.

West Virginians entitled to a refund will get the money through a check in the mail or in a reduction in future premiums, among other ways.

Burwell Nomination Progressing Through the Senate

The Senate Finance Committee is expected to vote this week on whether to approve West Virginia native and current Office of Management and Budget Director, Sylvia Matthews Burwell, as head of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.

If the committee approves Burwell the full Senate will take up her nomination.

Republican Endorsement

Burwell faced another round of questions Wednesday April 14, 2014 as the U.S. Senate Finance Committee considered her nomination to head the Department of Health and Human Services.

This was Burwell’s second confirmation hearing and she received an endorsement from a key republican and questions about the Affordable Care act. The hearing opened with an introduction by Republican Senator Tom Coburn (R-Okla.) who said he plans to vote for Burwell’s nomination.

“She’s competent,” Coburn said. “To me that says something because so often we have people placed in positions in Washington that aren’t competent for the task at hand.”

Coburn went on to say Burwell has an outstanding character, something he’s witnessed as he’s worked closely with Burwell and others at the Office of Management and Budget over the past year on problems in that agency.

“When you have somebody that’s competent and also has strong character you find a way to get past your differences to solve problems.” Coburn said.

West Virginia Senator Jay Rockefeller also helped introduce Burwell and pointed out what he considers some of her strengths. Rockefeller called Burwell brilliant, yet humble and always hard working.

“So the central devotion of your purpose of public service is to help people better their position in life,” Rockefeller said.

During her opening statement Burwell told committee members that she plans to focus on three areas should she be approved: building strong teams, strengthening relationships and delivering results.

“If confirmed I look forward to working alongside the remarkable men and women of the Department of Health and Human Services to build on their work to insure that children, families and seniors have the building blocks of healthy and productive lives,” Burwell said.

Republican committee members took the opportunity to make their dissatisfaction with the Affordable Care Act known, and expressed frustration with lack of communication from HHS under current Director Kathleen Sebelius.

Concerns Expressed

The Ranking Republican, Senator Orin Hatch of Utah, was the first to ask if Burwell would answer queries from Congress. Democrat Bill Nelson of Florida brought up the problem of Medicare Fraud, calling south Florida ground zero and asking Burwell how she’ll address it.

Other topics committee members touched on included health care for minorities, whether states that used federal money to launch failed health care web sites should have to repay it and fixing what some called the ‘broken system of reimbursing physicians under Medicare.’

At the end of the hearing Committee Chairman Ron Wyden (D-Ore.) it’s his intention to work with other members to push the nomination through the Senate as quickly as possible.

Sylvia Matthews Burwell Faces Her First Confirmation Hearing For HHS Secretary

West Virginia native Sylvia Matthews Burwell faced questions from Senators Thursday during her first hearing to become Secretary of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.

A few republicans on the Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor and Pensions made their dislike of the Affordable Care Act- or Obamacare as they called it- known with questions about last fall’s rocky web site rollout, whether the numbers of enrollees are accurate and whether the deadline for the individual mandate should be extended. But for the most part Republicans seemed to be receptive to Burwell heading Health and Human Service with North Carolina Senator Richard Burr giving an outright endorsement.

“It’s because she doesn’t come with a single experience that would make her a good secretary, she comes with a portfolio of experience that would make her a tremendous asset in addressing some of the challenges that that agency specifically and uniquely has,” Burr said. Burwell was introduced to the Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor and Pensions by Arizona Republican John McCain and West Virginia Democrat Joe Manchin.

In his comments, McCain pointed to Burwell’s success at running the Walmart Foundation, saying he believes Burwell has the qualifications to run HHS and will be more responsive to Congress than current Secretary Kathleen Sibelius has been. McCain told the committee he advised Burwell, who currently manages the Office of Management and Budget, to turn down the nomination.

“After all who would recommend their friend take over as captain of the Titanic after it hit the iceberg?" McCain quipped. "Obviously she ignored my advice and accepted the nomination anyway continuing her pattern of public service.”

In recommending Burwell, McCain pointed out if she gets the job Burwell will oversee an agency that has a $1 trillion budget and 80,000 employees.

Not all the questions and comments directed at Burwell were about the Affordable Care Act.

Senators from all parties engaged her in discussion about other HHS responsibilities like early childhood education programs, National Institutes of Health research, regulating the amount of salt in the food supply, federal regulation of e-cigarettes and maintaining support for community health centers.

Maryland Democrat Barbara Mikulski discussed the fact that quite a few HHS facilities are located in her state.

“I need a chief executive officer, we need someone who will bring executive skills to this job,” Mikulski said.

The committee that had this hearing will not vote on the nomination. The next step is a confirmation hearing before the Senate Finance Committee, which will take a vote. The full Senate will ultimately weigh in on the nomination.

Sylvia Mathews Burwell – HHS Secretary

Meet Hinton-native Sylvia Mathews Burwell, the new Secretary of Health and Human Services in Washington. Previously she was the Director of the Office of Management and Budget.

Burwell is the past President of Global Development at the Bill & Linda Gates Foundation in Seattle, the world’s largest charitable organization. At the Foundation Mathews Burwell was responsible for giving away $750 billion a year to help some of the world’s poorest people have access to better agricultural techniques, financial services and clean water and sanitation.

Today she runs a government department with 70,000 people and a budget in excess of a trillion dollars. Yet she remains in regular touch with her childhood friends, and is proud of her West Virginia roots. “It is an incredible thing to be from our state”, Burwell says. “I am so proud of being from a place where I think so many important values of hard work, respect, sense of community are instilled.”