Ms. Summa has extensive experience working with the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) on regulatory and policy matters. Ms. Summa worked for the U.S. Department of Health & Human Services (HHS), Center for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) as a senior-level career employee when the Medicare Modernization Act (MMA) was first signed in 2003.
She served as the Special Assistant to the Deputy/Acting Administrator Leslie Norwalk during the implementation of Part D, and as a member of a team established by the Secretary of HHS to create new Office of Medicare Hearings and Appeals (OMHA). During this time, Ms. Summa oversaw Social Security Administration (SSA) workflow on OMHA decisions and designed, proposed and implemented systematic review of all OMHA cases to determine SSA compliance.
Prior to joining CMS, Ms. Summa worked as an attorney for the HHS Departmental Appeals Board (DAB) reviewing Medicare appeal cases and drafting judicial opinions. In 2006, Ms. Summa served on Senate Finance Committee's investigative staff for Senator Charles Grassley, reviewing records of pharmaceutical companies suspected of illegal "off-label" marketing practices, before returning to CMS to serve as a Senior Policy Advisor in the Office of Policy. In this role, she focused on efforts to rebuild the New Orleans health care system and enhance emergency preparedness. As liaison to the State of Louisiana officials and New Orleans business leaders, Ms. Summa acted as the lead programmatic technical contact on a $175 million grant to the Gulf Coast region for provider stabilization. She also drafted grants awarding more than $385 million in funds for health care rebuilding efforts in the Gulf Coast region.
Prior to attending law school, Ms. Summa worked as a field geologist mapping complex geological structures in the Arctic and the Southern Archipelago regions of Sweden and continued her work as a hydrogeologist remediating groundwater and soil contamination associated with leaking underground storage tanks for the State of Georgia while attending law school. After graduating from the Georgia State University College of Law, Ms. Summa served as counsel to leading telecommunication companies on environmental issues associated with land acquisition and tower construction before joining a government relations firm headed by former Congressman Thomas B. Evans, Jr. (R-DE) to advocate for environmental, energy, health and tax issues.