After a more than two-year tenure in which she charted the state’s path through the tumultuous Steward Health Care collapse, Health and Human Services Secretary Kate Walsh will step down and hand the reins over to Undersecretary Kiame Mahaniah at a pivotal time for the sprawling secretariat.
Gov. Maura Healey on Friday appointed Mahaniah, the former Lynn Community Health Center CEO who has served as undersecretary of health since April 2023, to take over the Executive Office of Health and Human Services’s top job starting Monday.
Mahaniah steps into the role on a permanent – not interim – basis as Massachusetts braces for upheaval stemming from a new federal law, including major funding cuts to MassHealth and the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP).
“Dr. Mahaniah has an outstanding record as a physician, a community leader, and a valued member of the EOHHS leadership team,” Healey said in a statement. “As the Trump Administration undermines health care and food access for hundreds of thousands of Massachusetts residents, Dr. Mahaniah will be committed to making high-quality health care more affordable and accessible for all of our residents, bringing an urgently needed focus on primary care and behavioral health care, and maintaining our nation-leading health and human services system in Massachusetts.”
Before he led Lynn Community Health Center for six years, Mahaniah worked at other providers in northern Massachusetts. He was chief medical officer of North Shore Community Health Inc. and the Haverhill Street site medical director for the Greater Lawrence Family Health Center.
Walsh is not leaving for a new job, and decided to step down for personal reasons after more than four decades of leadership in the health care sector, according to a Healey administration official. She will remain involved as an advisor to the governor and to HHS and it’s not clear how long that role will last.
Mahaniah will oversee the largest department in state government, whose work reaches across MassHealth, the opioid epidemic, child welfare, mental health, food assistance and more. It’s also the single largest area of state spending – the $32 billion allotted to HHS fiscal 2026 represents more than half of the entire state budget –and arguably serves more people than any executive office.
Health care, especially the biotechnology and pharmaceutical sectors, is a cornerstone industry in Massachusetts, but the state continues to struggle with rising costs of care pressuring patients and businesses.
The outlook is especially cloudy for lower-income residents who rely on MassHealth, which combines the state’s Medicaid and Children’s Health Insurance Program, or get insurance through the Massachusetts Health Connector. Top state health care officials told the Boston Globe this week they believe 300,000 Bay Staters are at risk of losing coverage over the next decade and the state could lose $3.5 billion in funding over the same period as a result of provisions in the so-called “big, beautiful bill” President Donald Trump signed.
HHS’s massive purview also includes the Department of Transitional Assistance, which administers the SNAP program that’s also facing major changes under the new federal law.
“This is certainly a challenging moment for health care and human services work, but our state has a head start – thanks to our world-leading resources, talent, providers and partners – to come together, solve problems, and work to make the right services and supports available to people who need them,” Mahaniah said.
Cari Medina, executive vice president of 1199 SEIU United Healthcare Workers East, called Mahaniah “the leader that our state’s healthcare system needs as we face the threat of major Medicaid cuts amid a healthcare workforce crisis that is overburdening our entire health system.”
Healey picked Walsh, who spent 13 years as CEO of Boston Medical Center, as her health and human services secretary soon after taking office in January 2023. Walsh previously held leadership roles at Massachusetts General Hospital, the Novartis Institutes for BioMedical Research, and Brigham and Women’s Hospital.
“It has been an honor to be part of the Healey-Driscoll Administration and to represent the EOHHS team of over 23,000 people who work tirelessly every day to support residents of the Commonwealth,” Walsh said in a statement. “I will miss working with my colleagues in Governor Healey’s cabinet and across our agencies, providers and partners. Our team and the residents of Massachusetts are in great hands with Dr. Mahaniah, who has already been a highly capable and compassionate leader of some of our most important programs.”
Within Walsh’s first year as secretary, she and other Healey administration officials were confronted with a new crisis: the financial collapse of Steward Health Care, the for-profit system that owned eight hospitals across the state.
Six facilities were sold to new owners during Steward’s bankruptcy proceedings. Boston Medical Center, which Walsh led before she joined the administration, took over St. Elizabeth’s in Brighton and Good Samaritan Brockton.
The state provided hundreds of millions of dollars in aid to keep hospitals open as the new operators got settled, and it also seized St. Elizabeth’s by eminent domain to facilitate its ownership transition to BMC.
Two Steward-owned hospitals – Nashoba Valley Medical Center in Ayer and Carney Hospital in Dorchester – shuttered last year. Officials said the hospitals did not receive qualified bids from potential new operators, though some local leaders were frustrated by what they saw as insufficient state support.
“Given @MassHHS Secretary Walsh’s underwhelming responses to the closure of the Nashoba Valley Medical Center, including calling it an empty community hospital, I welcome her decision to step down,” Sen. Jamie Eldridge of Marlborough, whose district includes the now-closed Nashoba Valley Medical Center, posted on X. “Hoping new Sec. Mahaniah will focus on Central Mass more.”
Medina, whose union represents more than 85,000 health care workers in Massachusetts, thanked Walsh “for her years of partnership.”
“From her role shepherding Boston Medical Center through the COVID-19 pandemic, to her work helping Massachusetts weather the Steward Health Care bankruptcy, she has served as a thoughtful, composed leader during times of crisis and fear,” Medina said. “Whether working together to protect our patients, or sitting on opposite sides of the bargaining table, Secretary Walsh always treated healthcare workers with respect, and we wish her the best as she enters a new chapter.”
Healey’s office rolled out the announcement about the transition with statements of support from Health Care Financing Committee co-chair Cindy Friedman, Rep. Daniel Cahill, Mass. Health and Hospital Association President Steve Walsh, The Arc of Massachusetts CEO Maura Sullivan, Association for Behavioral Healthcare President Lydia Conley, and Mass. League of Community Health Centers President Michael Curry.