Mehmet Oz, MD, President Donald Trump's pick for CMS administrator, sat through three hours of questioning March 14 from the Senate Finance Committee, which will now vote on whether to advance his nomination to the full Senate.
If confirmed, Dr. Oz will be responsible for overseeing a federal agency that provides more than 160 million Americans health coverage through Medicare, Medicaid and the Children's Health Insurance Program and the ACA marketplace.
The hearing focused on questions surrounding potential Medicaid cuts, which would negatively affect hospitals. House Republicans approved a budget resolution Feb. 25 directing the Energy and Commerce Committee to cut $880 billion from fiscals 2025 to 2034. While the resolution does not detail how it must cut costs, Medicare and Medicaid are the largest programs under the committee's oversight. A March 5 Congressional Budget Office report said the only way to reach the $880 billion saving goal over the next decade, without raising taxes, would be through Medicaid or CHIP cuts.
While Dr. Oz did not directly respond to questions or reveal his stance regarding Medicaid cuts, he stressed his commitment to the American people.
"I commit to doing whatever I can, working tirelessly to ensure that CMS provides Americans with superb care," Dr. Oz said during the hearing. "Especially Americans who are most vulnerable. Our young, our disabled and our elderly."
Here are five key takeaways from the Senate Finance Committee hearing. A recording of the hearing in full can be found here.
1. Medicare Advantage. Dr. Oz touched on Medicare Advantage during the hearing, a program he has been a vocal proponent of expanding to all Americans in the past. However, with more than 55% of the Medicare population covered by Medicare Advantage, tensions have risen over program hurdles like slow payment processes and prior authorization denials.
Dr. Oz expressed concerns about Medicare Advantage sales and brokers encouraging seniors to switch Medicare Advantage policies for financial gain, and suggested considering multi-year enrollment options, instead of annual required reelection, which could help cut broker-driven costs.
"There are ways for us to ensure that the marketing process works better for the folks involved," he said. "It's also what the Medicare Advantage plans also do with the money they use to incentivize the American people – the 33 million people on Medicare Advantage – to come into their programs. We should examine whether some of that money should be reimbursed to the American people to ensure that Medicare Advantage does not cost more than fee-for-service Medicare."
2. Department of Government Efficiency. Sen. Ron Wyden, D-Ore., questioned Dr. Oz about what he would do to prevent the Elon Musk-led Department of Government Efficiency from accessing patient's personal information, if confirmed.
DOGE was created in late January with a goal to uncover billions in wasted taxpayer dollars, but has faced backlash and lawsuits from several state attorneys general that claimed Mr. Musk and DOGE have accessed sensitive data, caused disruption to federal employees, state and local governments and Americans, and has disrupted federal agencies.
Dr. Oz said, like Mr. Wyden, he has not been involved with or spoken to anyone in the Trump administration about DOGE.
"I intend to spend my first precious few weeks in the agency, if confirmed, speaking to the staff, raising morale, getting people excited and addressing what's going on with DOGE," he said.
3. Prescription drug costs. Dr. Oz emphasized the need for greater transparency in pharmacy benefit managers' pricing practices to help lower drug costs.
"We, I believe, in order to protect the American people, and President Trump's been very clear on this, want to reduce the cost of medications to our government and to the American people," he said. "That's not happening right now. We can do better."
When asked whether he would continue to defend Medicare's drug pricing negotiation program in court, Dr. Oz responded, "It's the law. I'm going to defend it and use it." He added that it is one of multiple approaches he would pursue to lower drug costs.
The drug price negotiation program, established under the 2022 Inflation Reduction Act, allows the federal government to negotiate prices on certain high-cost drugs starting in 2026. In January, CMS selected 15 additional drugs for price negotiations under the act. This second round builds on the first cycle of negotiations, which secured price reductions for 10 drugs.
4. Artificial intelligence. In his opening statement, Dr. Oz outlined three key priorities if confirmed, including incentivizing clinicians to optimize care using real-time information and workflow integration.
"Artificial intelligence, I believe, can help," he said. "It can liberate doctors and nurses from all the paperwork, which, by the way, is as much time they spend on paperwork as taking care of patients."
When later asked by Sen. Todd Young, R-Ind., how he would ensure CMS policies encourage AI adoption and full utilization of new technologies, Dr. Oz said the agency must make it easy to make high-quality data accessible in a secure manner to support AI-driven advancements.
5. Divestitures. No mention was made during the hearing of Dr. Oz's plan to divest from several healthcare companies, including Abbvie, Eli Lilly, UnitedHealth Group, and Nashville, Tenn.-based HCA Healthcare, if confirmed as CMS administrator.
In late February, Dr. Oz submitted the filing with the Office of Government Ethics that he would resign from advisory positions at companies like Sandbox AQ, a technology company, and iHerb, a nutritional supplement firm. He also committed to divesting stakes in Apple, Amazon and Walmart within 90 days of being confirmed.