CMS Leadership

As the Administrator of the Consortium for Medicare Health Plans Operations (CMHPO), James Kerr supervises approximately 400 staff in CMS's 10 regional offices, which provide daily oversight to over 750 contracts delivering Medicare Advantage and Prescription Drug services to nearly 31 million beneficiaries nationwide. Mr. Kerr was formerly the CMS Regional Administrator in the New York Office.

Mr. Kerr came to CMS in 2003 with more than 25 years experience in top level executive positions in commercial insurance and New York City government. He was the Vice President of Government Health Plans for United Healthcare's New York Tri-State market where he launched their managed Medicare product, had profit and loss responsibility for United Healthcare's Medicare and Medicaid HMO products, and led several major plan management functions. He has also held Chief Operating Officer positions at MetraHealth, Met Life and New York Life-Sanus Health Plan of New York and New Jersey. Mr. Kerr has a Master of Science in Management and a Bachelor of Science in Mechanical Engineering from the Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute. He also earned an MBA in Health Care Administration from the Mount Sinai School of Medicine, Baruch College. Mr. Kerr received the Presidential Meritorious Executive Rank Award in October 2007.