Former head of the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services to aid Tapestry’s board in the push for federal reform of outdated rules governing telemedicine
TapestryHealth is excited to announce that Seema Verma, former head of the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) and health policy expert, has joined our Advisory Board.
During the early days of the Covid-19 pandemic and as a member of Vice President Pence’s Covid task force, she helped shape the administration’s position on the use of telemedicine as a critical tool for safely diagnosing potential victims without compelling doctors to travel from one nursing home to another or forcing the resident to be hospitalized for diagnosis and treatment. Her role in easing CMS restrictions on the use and reimbursement of telemedicine visits contributed significantly to the expansion of telemedicine use in skilled nursing facilities.
“Without the leadership of Seema Verma during the early stages of the pandemic to help unleash the power of telemedicine, there’s no telling how many more lives would have been lost. Her depth of understanding in both healthcare and public policy is going to fortify our efforts to convince the Congress that telemedicine is critical to good health care, often the only means for this vulnerable population to receive the level of care they need” said Dr. David Chess, founder of TapestryHealth.
“We’ve gotten to know Seema over the past several months and it was clear from the beginning she could help Tapestry fix a very broken system in a very underserved population, as a strong advocate for the LTC space, she brings an invaluable perspective and we’re looking forward to solving critical issues in a historically overlooked patient population” said Abinav Sankar of Sopris Capital and a member of the TapestryHealth Board of Directors
Verma will begin working Tapestry’s board on September 1, joining Mark Hirschhorn, Ken Grossman, and Abinav Sankar, who joined the TapestryHealth board in 2020.