In What Year Were the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services Established?

March 14, 2016 · Shireesha Jevaji

February Monthly Quiz Question: In what year were the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) established?

Multiple Choice Options:

#1: 1964

#2: 1965

#3: 1966

#4: 1967

Correct! #2-1965.

It’s sort of a trick question. But the foundation of what would come to be called CMS was formed in 1965. On July 30, 1965, President Lyndon B. Johnson signed the Social Security Amendments which established Medicare and Medicaid, promising that they would “improve a wide range of health and medical services for Americans of all ages.”

Over the years, legislative amendments merged Medicare and Medicaid to create a new administrative structure to implement national health insurance—CMS. The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) are headquartered in Baltimore and is now part of the Department of Health and Human Services. Last year, CMS celebrated its 50th year of providing health care coverage.

Check out the video of President Johnson signing the Medicare Bill at the Truman Presidential Library in Independence, Missouri.