UPDATE: Becker's Hospital Review reported that Nancy Schlichting will not take the VA secretary position.
Dive Brief:
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Nancy Schlichting met with the transition team for President-elect Donald Trump on Thursday under consideration for Secretary of the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA), Modern Healthcare reported.
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Schlichting recently retired as CEO of the Henry Ford Health System and last year chaired a commission tasked with improving healthcare delivered by the VA.
- Toby Cosgrove, CEO of the Cleveland Clinic, and Luis Quiñonez, a businessman and Army veteran, both recently withdrew themselves from consideration.
Dive Insight:
The department has been embroiled in not so flattering headlines in the last couple of years highlighting long-wait times to booting three executives in March over a scandal sparked by lengthy wait lists and sometimes patient deaths
Schlichting joins a handful of others named as being considered for the job. She spent 18 years with Henry Ford, a six-hospital, nonprofit system in Detroit, before retiring as its CEO at the end of last year, according to Modern Healthcare. During her last year with Henry Ford, she also chaired the VA Commission on Care, which produced a report with 18 recommendations for transitioning the VA to a more integrated system.
U.S. Navy Admiral Michelle Howard, the first woman appointed a four-star admiral in the Navy and the first African-American woman to command a Navy ship, is another candidate for the post, according to a December 31 article published by The Hill. Pete Hegseth, a Fox contributor who has run a veterans advocacy group and served in Iraq and Afghanistan, has been named as another candidate, as has been former Massachusetts Sen. Scott Brown, an Army National Guard veteran.