Chief of SC’s Medicaid agency stepping down, Gov. McMaster says
Gov. Henry McMaster announced Tuesday that Joshua Baker, head of South Carolina’s Medicaid agency, will step down next year.
Baker’s resignation is effective Jan. 11, the governor said in a statement.
The Governor’s Office has not named a successor, but in a news release said, as was done in the past, the governor will work with state health care leaders and lawmakers with health care credentials to help him in the selection process for the next director of the Health and Human Services agency.
In a statement, McMaster said Baker has served South Carolina “with distinction” in many jobs over the course of nearly a decade and leaves the health agency “better than it was when he arrived” three years ago.
No reason for Baker’s departure was provided, but it doesn’t appear to be performance related.
Baker’s resignation comes amid another search for the next director of the state’s public health agency, the Department of Health and Environmental Control. The agency charged with handling the state’s COVID-19 response has been without a permanent director since this summer when former head Rick Toomey resigned for health and family reasons.
The state’s public safety department also is lacking a permanent director. However, the governor recently tapped acting chief Robert Woods for the job, who will have to be approved by the state Senate.
“Over the past three years, he has simultaneously prioritized the health of South Carolinians and the financial health of our state as a whole,” McMaster said of Baker. “His leadership and expertise have served our people well and will be missed.”
Baker’s one-page resignation letter also did not offer a reason for his leave, but mentioned why in January is an appropriate time for a transition in leadership.
“With vaccine distribution in sight, the agency in the strongest financial position it has seen in over a decade and a half, and a natural pause in initiatives following the election but prior to the start of the next General Assembly, I believe now is an appropriate time to transition leadership at the agency,” Baker said. “It has been an honor to serve you and the people of South Carolina and I will continue to support your leadership in any way I can during the remainder of my tenure with the agency.”
Nationally, the average tenure of a Medicaid director is 21 months, according to a 2019 survey from the National Association of Medicaid Directors.
The agency also confirmed that HHS’ Bryan Amick, chief strategy and innovation officer, and Erin Boyce, chief of staff, also are leaving the agency in January.
Baker has led the state agency responsible for handling the state’s Medicaid services since McMaster tapped him, then 36, for the job back in November 2017, a promotion from Baker’s previous role as the agency’s director of operations.
Before coming to HHS, Baker was former Gov. Nikki Haley’s deputy chief of staff for budget and policy, helping Haley craft executive budgets to propose to the state Legislature. In a statement at the time he tapped Baker for the HHS chief position, McMaster said Baker’s “top-level policy expertise, combined with his medical experience, makes him uniquely qualified for this post.”
An important state agency — responsible for keeping track of South Carolina’s Medicaid providers and doling out payments to low-income South Carolinians, but rarely making headlines — HHS took focus during the governor’s first term in office after McMaster with the help of the state Legislature which sought to defund Planned Parenthood’s two clinics.
In 2018, the governor asked the federal government for a waiver to force the clinics to drop Medicaid patients, requesting the government exempt state abortion clinics from South Carolina’s network of Medicaid providers. South Carolina Democrats and women’s health groups criticized the move, accusing the governor of trying to score political points.
The U.S. Supreme Court intervened in October, denying the governor’s effort to cut off Planned Parenthood from Medicaid dollars.
The agency made news again last year when the Trump administration gave South Carolina the OK to require some Medicaid recipients to work or volunteer in order to qualify for federal health care benefits despite court challenges in other states. However, that requirement has since been paused due to the COVID-19 impact on states.
In his letter to the governor, Baker wrote that the last three years have been “the most challenging and most rewarding” of his career. Baker said this year in particular “yielded unprecedented challenges for the state” and thanked McMaster for his leadership.
“Managing the Medicaid program through the COVID-19 public health emergency has been an experience like no other in my lifetime, and South Carolina’s preparation and response to the pandemic have positioned the state well,” he wrote.
House budget chairman Murrell Smith, R-Sumter, commended Baker’s work in a statement, saying he worked well with lawmakers and “his innovation has made our state’s Medicaid program as strong as anyone can remember.”
Sue Berkowitz, director of S.C. Appleseed Legal Justice Center which advocates for low-income South Carolinians, said the agency is too important to be in limbo and without a director. Who succeeds Baker, she said, needs to be an advocate for beneficiaries — for example, children, people who are disabled and elderly who need health care — and not just for providers and the insurance industry.
“I hope that’s the focus,” she said. “Not just a bean counter but somebody who really thinks about how to make sure people are getting healthy and staying healthy.”
This story was originally published December 15, 2020 at 11:09 AM.
