On Jan. 8, HHS appointed Stacy Sanders to serve as its inaugural chief competition officer. The newly created role is part of the Biden administration's larger efforts to lower healthcare and drug costs.
HHS secretary Xavier Becerra appointed Ms. Sanders to the role, where she "will play a leading role in working with the Federal Trade Commission and Department of Justice to address concentration in healthcare markets through data-sharing, reciprocal training programs, and the further development of additional healthcare competition policy initiatives," according to a news release announcing her appointment.
Ms. Sanders joined HHS in November 2022 as counselor to the secretary, where she oversaw the agency's implementation of the Inflation Reduction Act, which became law in August 2022 and for the first time allows Medicare to negotiate the price of drugs and impose penalties on drugmakers for hiking prices of prescription drugs faster than inflation rates.
She previously spent five years in the Senate as staff director of the Senate Special Committee on Aging for U.S. Sen. Bob Casey Jr.