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Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services director Barbara Paul is joining Beverly Enterprises as chief medical officer, the company announced Wednesday. Her official start date is March 15. She is leaving her post as director of quality measurement at CMS in Baltimore to oversee Beverly’s skilled nursing facilities and rehabilitation operations from San Francisco, where her husband lives and works.

Paul’s departure follows CMS administrator Tom Scully’s resignation in December to join the law firm Alston & Bird, as well as the departure of several other top officials.

Paul launched the Nursing Home Quality Initiative at CMS and was instrumental in the agency’s overall quality measurement and public reporting work. She served on the boards of the National Quality Forum and The Leapfrog Group.

An internist, Paul practiced medicine full-time in Napa, CA, from 1987 to 1999. She chaired California Medical Association’s Council on Ethical Affairs and served on their Board of Trustees.