Don I. Wortman is a retired U.S. federal government administrator who served 27 years in senior-level executive positions in many federal government agencies. He was Acting Commissioner of the Social Security Administration (SSA) from December 13, 1977 to October 4, 1978. In early 1977, while working at the Department of Health, Education and Welfare (HEW)—precursor to the Department of Health and Human Services—he was Chairman of the task force for implementing the reorganization of HEW. This reorganization included the merging of the Medicare and Medicaid programs into a new agency; this agency was named the Health Care Financing Administration (and renamed the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services in June 2001). He became the first Administrator of the Health Care Financing Adminis