CMS nominee Tavenner gets lifetime payout

President Obama's nominee to run the nation's Medicare and Medicaid agency can count on receiving more than $160,000 a year in retirement pay for the rest of her life from the country's largest private hospital chain, records show. Marilyn Tavenner, a former executive at Hospital Corporation of America (HCA), was nominated in November to be administrator for the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, the agency at the heart of Mr. Obama's health care initiative. She disclosed the arrangement with her old employer in a newly filed government ethics form.