Robby Kerr, head of the state’s Medicaid agency. (Provided/Governor’s Office)
COLUMBIA — The head of South Carolina’s Medicaid agency will retire Nov. 1, the governor’s office announced Monday.
This will be the second time Robby Kerr has retired from the role leading the state Department of Health and Human Services. He previously ran the agency from 2003 to 2007, during the tenure of Gov. Mark Sanford.
“It has been my great pleasure and honor to serve the citizens of this state in your administration,” Kerr wrote in his resignation letter Monday to Gov. Henry McMaster, which was provided to reporters. “With utmost appreciation and gratitude, I thank you for giving me the opportunity.”
McMaster has not yet named Kerr’s successor.
After former Director Joshua Baker resigned in December 2020, McMaster tapped Kerr again as agency head, where his annual salary is $286,000. Kerr was confirmed by the Senate in April 2021.
Kerr said at the time he “can think of no better way to close out my career,” according to a news release.
Kerr “has transformed and modernized our state’s Medicaid program and has led efforts to improve service, efficiency, and health outcomes at agencies across state government,” McMaster said in the announcement. “South Carolina is a better place today because of the contributions and accomplishments of Director Kerr. He will be missed.”
Kerr started working for the agency in 1985. Between stints as director, he ran consulting firm Kerr & Company, Inc., which he shuttered as part of his return to office three years ago.
Under Kerr’s leadership, the agency made strides in improving mental health resources. After raising reimbursement rates for mental health counselors in schools, the agency doubled the number of mental health professionals working with students. The department invested more than $45 million to place crisis stabilization units in hospitals for people with mental health and substance use issues to get help. And Kerr led the department in establishing a hub for behavioral health services in Florence in an effort to expand the area’s mental health resources, he wrote in his resignation letter.
Kerr also focused on raising employee morale, emphasizing the difference that workers make on health care for South Carolina residents, he wrote. He praised his staff for the work they do, adding there’s more to be done.
“It is a humbling privilege to work among such everyday heroes who often go unseen themselves but whose work is clearly visible in the lives of so many,” Kerr wrote. “I am convinced this agency has the best workforce in the state. I am equally confident that they are poised to handle the challenges necessary to move us forward and achieve greater things.”