Stephen Cha is a physician and health policy administrator serving as Commissioner of the New Jersey Department of Human Services, the state's largest and most complex agency. The department employs more than 7,000 staff and administers a $33.5 billion budget covering NJ FamilyCare (Medicaid), mental health and addiction services, disability services, aging programs, food assistance, and child and family supports. Cha was nominated by Governor Mikie Sherrill in December 2025, served as Acting Commissioner beginning January 22, 2026, and was confirmed by the State Senate in February 2026.

Cha is a primary care doctor who spent more than a decade working part-time at a homeless shelter in Washington, D.C., an experience he cites as formative to his understanding of how Medicaid and social services affect individual lives. His policy career spans federal legislative service, Medicaid administration, private insurance leadership, and cabinet-level advisory roles. He served roughly six years as senior professional staff on the U.S. House Committees on Energy and Commerce and Oversight and Government Reform under Chairman Henry A. Waxman. He then spent six years at the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services as the first Chief Medical Officer of the Center for Medicaid and CHIP Services and as a group director leading state-driven innovation for the Center for Medicare and Medicaid Innovation.

From 2018 to 2021, Cha was Chief Medical Officer for UnitedHealthcare Community & State, overseeing care for approximately six million Medicaid and CHIP members across 29 states and the District of Columbia. He subsequently served as Counselor to the Secretary of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services from 2021 to 2025 under Secretary Xavier Becerra, with a portfolio that included the Food and Drug Administration, National Institutes of Health, Indian Health Service, and Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality. In that role he coordinated the federal COVID-19 response and led Operation Fly Formula to address the national infant formula shortage in 2022.

Political Career

• Senior Professional Staff, U.S. House Committees on Energy and Commerce and Oversight and Government Reform (six years)
• First Chief Medical Officer, Center for Medicaid and CHIP Services, Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (six years)
• Group Director, Center for Medicare and Medicaid Innovation, Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services
• Chief Medical Officer, UnitedHealthcare Community & State (2018–2021)
• Counselor to the Secretary, U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (2021–2025)
• Acting Commissioner, New Jersey Department of Human Services (January–February 2026)
• Commissioner, New Jersey Department of Human Services (2026–present)

Key Policy Areas

• Medicaid and health coverage access
• Behavioral health and addiction services
• Disability services and provider quality standards
• Aging and senior services
• Food assistance and economic supports
• Maternal health and health equity

Notable Actions / Initiatives

• Led Operation Fly Formula in 2022, coordinating federal regulatory changes and international shipments to resolve the national infant formula shortage.
• Coordinated the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services response to the COVID-19 pandemic as counselor to the secretary.
• Named the first Chief Medical Officer for the Center for Medicaid and CHIP Services at CMS, overseeing policy and innovation for programs covering tens of millions of beneficiaries.
• Oversees NJ FamilyCare, which covers 1.8 million New Jerseyans with a state commitment of $25.5 billion annually, $15 billion of which comes from federal sources.
• Leading the department's response to federal HR1 legislation, which is projected to remove more than 300,000 New Jersey residents from Medicaid and shift nearly $100 million in SNAP administrative costs to counties and the state.

Education

• B.A., Political Science, Brown University
• M.D., Brown University School of Medicine
• M.H.S.R., Health Services Research, Yale University School of Medicine

Personal

• Birth date: Not publicly available
• Residence: Not publicly available