Tamara Syrek Jenkins, an attorney who has had a long career at the Coverage Group at CMS, has moved to the consulting world.
Syrek Jenkins is now Principal and Vice President of Federal Programs at Rubrum Advising.
Rubrum Advising was founded by Lee Fleisher MD, who was previously Chief Medical Officer at CMS and earlier, a professor at the University of Pennsylvania medical school.
###
Here's her bio at Rubrum.
https://www.rubrumadvising.com/
Tamara Syrek Jensen is a nationally recognized health policy leader and former Director of CMS’s Coverage and Analysis Group (CAG), where she shaped national coverage standards for devices, drugs, biologics, and preventive services supporting 65+ million Medicare beneficiaries.
As part of Rubrum’s work with government stakeholders, Syrek Jensen designs and executes commercialization strategies—bridging evidence planning, regulatory milestones, and payer engagement—from early development and pre-FDA authorization through full market launch.
Over more than 25 years at CMS, Tamara delivered major reforms that modernized coverage pathways and expanded access to care. She led creation of CMS’s new coverage pathway for FDA breakthrough devices—impacting more than 780 technologies and ensuring patients had timely access to innovations with proven outcomes. She modernized the agency’s Coverage with Evidence Development (CED) policy, cutting timelines for final guidance by more than half, and published landmark guidance documents that set new standards for transparency and predictability. Her work has been recognized in JAMA and NEJM and cited as a model for how CMS can drive innovation responsibly.
Before joining CAG, Tamara was Special Assistant to the CMS Chief Medical Officer and Director of the Office of Clinical Standards and Quality (OCSQ) (now CCSQ), where she was instrumental in developing the first MOU between CMS and FDA. That agreement laid the groundwork for the data modernization strategy that continues to support innovation today.
Tamara earned a reputation as a trusted leader and coalition-builder, fostering collaboration across CMS, FDA, NIH, specialty societies, and patient groups. Under her leadership, CMS doubled its evidentiary reviews, managed a $67 million budget, streamlined workflows, and consistently met all congressional timelines for coverage decisions.
She is admitted to the bar in Maryland and early in her career was a legislative assistant in the House.