Verma founded health policy consulting firm SVC Inc. in June 2001. She was president and CEO of the company, which has worked with state insurance agencies and public health agencies in preparation for the implementation of the Affordable Care Act, and assisted Indiana and Kentucky, as well as other states, in the design of Medicaid expansion programs under the ACA. In her work with Indiana, Ohio, and Kentucky, she developed Medicaid reform programs under the Section 1115 waiver process. Verma's firm provided technical assistance to the state of Michigan in the implementation of their 1115 Medicaid waiver, assisted Tennessee in their coverage expansion proposal, and supported Iowa's Medicaid transition to managed care. In 2014, concerns were raised over a potential conflict of interest arising from Verma's dual roles as both a health care consultant for Indiana and an employee of a Hewlett-Packard division that is among Indiana's largest Medicaid vendors., SVC Inc. had been awarded over $3.5 million in Indiana state contracts while Verma was concurrently employed with Hewlett-Packard, earning over one million dollars during a period when the company had secured five hundred million dollars in state contracts.
On November 29, 2016, President-elect Donald Trump nominated Verma to serve as administrator of the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, the agency that oversees Medicare, Medicaid, and the insurance markets. On March 13, 2017, the United States Senate confirmed her nomination in a 55–43 vote. One of her first actions was to send a letter to the nation's governors, urging them to impose insurance premiums for Medicaid, charge Medicaid recipients for emergency room visits, and encourage recipients to obtain employment or job training. On July 25, 2018, Verma gave a speech in San Francisco in which she criticized proposals for "Medicare for all". She claimed that single-payer healthcare would "destroy" Medicare, which provides insurance for elderly people, and lead to "Medicare for None". The speech and her repeated attacks on medicare-for-all proposals led to a lawsuit alleging that her actions violated the Hatch Act. On March 2, 2020, the office of Vice President Mike Pence announced Verma's addition to White House Coronavirus Task Force.
Controversy
In March 2019, Politico reported that in her role as CMS administrator, Verma approved communications subcontracts worth more than $2 million of taxpayer funds on Republican-connected communications consultants and other expenses to boost her visibility and public image. Included in the consultants' work were proposals to have Verma featured in magazines like Glamour and have her invited to prestigious events like the Kennedy honors to increase her public persona. In July 2020, the HHS Inspector General reported that Verma spent more than $5M in taxpayer funds to do communications work and to help raise her profile. The report, a result of a 15-month investation, concluded that "CMS improperly administered the contracts and created improper employer-employee relationships between CMS and the contractors". Politico reported that Verma clashed with Acting HHS Secretary Alex Azar over which plans will replace Obamacare and who will get credit for those efforts, according to anonymous administration officials. Reportedly, this was not the first clash Verma had with her superiors as Politico reports that Verma hired a lawyer to file a claim of a "hostile work environment" against Secretary Tom Price. On August 20, 2018, Verma filed a claim requesting that taxpayers reimburse her for jewelry that was allegedly stolen on a work-related trip to San Francisco. Although she requested $47,000, including a $325 claim for moisturizer and a $5,900 Ivanka Trump-brand pendant, she ultimately received $2,852.40 in reimbursement. In December 2019, columnist Michael Hiltzik of the Los Angeles Times declared "Seema Verma is the greatest threat to public health programs in the Trump administration, with the possible exception only of Azar himself."
Personal life
Born in Virginia, Verma moved several times across the United States with her family and once lived in Taiwan for five years before settling in the greater Indianapolis area. Verma's husband Sanjay runs a medical practice through the Indiana Health Group. The couple has two children, Maya and Shaan. As of 2017, Verma and her family live in Carmel, Indiana.
