As Ramesh notes, President Obama will bypass the Senate’s advice and consent and use a recess appointment to install Harvard’s Donald Berwick — a self-avowed admirer of Britain’s National Health Service — as head of the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services.

The White House blamed Republicans for the maneuver:

“Many Republicans in Congress have made it clear in recent weeks that they were going to stall the nomination as long as they could, solely to score political points,” White House Communications Director Dan Pfeiffer wrote Tuesday on the White House blog.
“With the agency facing new responsibilities to protect seniors’ care under the Affordable Care Act, there’s no time to waste with Washington game-playing. That’s why tomorrow the president will use a recess appointment to put Dr. Berwick at the agency’s helm and provide strong leadership for the Medicare program without delay.”

Meanwhile, Senate minority leader Mitch McConnell called the appointment “outrageous:”

“As if shoving a trillion dollar government takeover of health care down the throat of a disapproving American public wasn’t enough, apparently the Obama Administration intends to arrogantly circumvent the American people yet again by recess appointing one of the most prominent advocates of rationed health care to implement their national plan. “Democrats haven’t scheduled so much as a committee hearing for Donald Berwick but the mere possibility of allowing the American people the opportunity to hear what he intends to do with their health care is evidently reason enough for this Administration to sneak him through without public scrutiny. “Just over three months after passage of this misguided law, with Americans’ worst fears about it being realized every day, the fact that this Administration won’t allow the man charged with implementing the President’s plan to cut $500 billion out of Medicare to testify about his plans for the care of our nation’s seniors is truly outrageous.” The appointment is only good through January, at which point a new Congress will have been sworn in.