Niall Brennan is the first Center for Medicare & Medicaid Services Chief Data Officer, the agency announced. He will lead the new Office of Enterprise Data and Analytics.
“It’s clear how much data transparency will help the country improve outcomes, control costs and aid consumer decision making,” said CMS Principal Deputy Administrator Andy Slavitt. “This appointment signals to the industry that there is no turning back from the health care data agenda. Niall Brennan will help make sure CMS leads the way.”
Previously, Brennan was CMS’s Acting Director of the Offices of Enterprise Management, and also has held various leadership positions CMS. Before starting at the agency, he worked at the Brookings Institution. He also has worked as a senior analyst at the Medicare Payment Advisory Commission, where he directed studies on measuring physician quality and cost and the Medicare Advantage program.
Brennan has been a principal analyst in the Budget Analysis Division at the Congressional Budget Office, where he worked on estimates related to Medicare reform, the Medicare drug benefit, and the Medicare hospital outpatient prospective payment system. Other positions include working as a research associate at The Urban Institute, and as a consultant in the Health Economics Group at Price Waterhouse.
He graduated from University College Dublin, and earned a master’s degree in public policy from Georgetown University.
