(AP) -- South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley's nominee to run the state's cash-strapped Medicaid agency is facing a Senate confirmation hearing.
Anthony Keck is Haley's choice to run the South Carolina Department of Health and Human Services.
On Thursday, Keck will be screened by the Senate Medical Affairs Committee for a job running the agency that provides health care coverage for the state's elderly, disabled and poor.
Keck is 43 and has been deputy secretary for Louisiana's Department of Health and Hospitals since October 2009.
He would take over an agency that has a $228 million deficit.
The agency has said it will stop paying health care providers on March 1 if the state doesn't allow it to run a deficit.
(Copyright ©2011 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)
