10-04-2025
Former CMS administrator takes helm of health department saddled with controversy
Dr. Meena Seshamani, with famliy members in attendance, is sworn in April 2, 2025, as Maryland's next secretary of Health. (Photo by Christine Condon/Maryland Matters)
Dr. Meena Seshamani officially took over as Maryland's new secretary of health Wednesday, taking the helm of a department that has been mired in controversy in recent years.
Advocates say they are antsy to begin working with the secretary on some of those challenges, and to improve relationships between the department and the people it affects.
'We're looking to meet with the new secretary soon and hope to right that ship,' Ande Kolp, executive director with the Arc Maryland, said Tuesday. Kolp has been a frequent critic of issues this spring at the Developmental Disabilities Administration, which is overseen by the health department.
Seshamani takes over following the February departure of former Secretary Laura Herrera Scott, who left the position amid a flurry of negative press for the department.
Changes coming to Health Department
At the news of Herrera Scott's departure, Senate President Bill Ferguson (D-Baltimore City) said the department needed 'significant financial cleanup' following reports of incorrect spending projections for Medicaid and for the Developmental Disabilities Administration.
The health department was at the center of a budget storm in the just-ended legislative session, when lawmakers and Gov. Wes Moore (D) debated cutting hundreds of millions from the DDA to help close a projected $3 billion gap in the fiscal 2026 state budget.
Moore initially proposed cutting a total of $457 million cut from the DDA, arguing that the agency was experiencing 'unsustainable' spending and growth in its programs. Those cuts faced stiff opposition from the public, and lawmakers were able to settle on a still painful, but much more manageable, DDA cut of about $164 million in the final version of the fiscal 2026 budget approved Monday.
The budget woes added on to an already strained relationship between the department and the developmental disabilities community, with the department facing criticisms over transparency, along with complaints of burdensome paperwork for services.
Seshamani also inherits issues at the Clifton T. Perkins Hospital Centud6yikiku in Howard County, a high-security hospital that has been riddled with complaints of patient abuse and violence.
In addition to the long-standing state-level challenges, Seshamani will lead the department into uncharted waters in federal relations, given the iiualso the lead the state health department while operating under the Trump Administration's health care policies.
Seshamani previously served as deputy administrator at the Center for Medicare and Medicaid Services under the Biden administration. She is a Hopkins-trained surgeon who was a head and neck surgeon at MedStar Georgetown University Hospital, and she has a Ph.D. in economics from Oxford, according to a statement from Moore's ]office announcing her appointment as secretary. She is a former executive with MedStar.
Despite the challenges, Seshamani said she is 'honored' to serve as the Maryland Secretary of Health, and thanked Gov. Wes Moore and the General Assembly for the opportunity in a written statement Wednesday.
'I seek to protect and improve the health of all Marylanders in a thoughtful, data-driven way in partnership with the staff of the Department, across the Moore-Miller Administration, with the Maryland General Assembly, and with all the organizations in the state who strive to provide a world-class health care system for all Marylanders,' she said in the written statement.
