Before joining Buchanan, Martin was the special assistant to the administrator of the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS), where he facilitated coordination across agency centers and offices, advised the administrator on policies, procedures and critical issues with a major impact on CMS programs and maintained contacts and working relationships with a wide range of parties in the health care policy community and the care industry.

Prior to CMS, he served for 14 years as the director of federal affairs for the American Association of Retired Persons (AARP). As AARP's chief federal lobbyist, Martin represented the organization before the Congress and the Executive Branch on a wide array of issues from Social Security and Medicare to pensions, tax policy, federal budget and finance and diverse consumer issues, such as housing, predatory lending, managed care, electronic commerce and privacy.

Utilizing both Washington-based and grassroots resources, Martin has developed and managed implementation of strategies to achieve federal public policy goals on a bipartisan basis in the Congress, Executive Branch, and independent agencies. Martin also served as a national spokesperson for AARP before the federal government and electronic and print media.