If confirmed as the next CMS administrator, Mehmet Oz, MD, will be in charge of regulating companies with which he has deep financial ties, according to NPR and The Washington Post.
President-elect Donald Trump nominated talk show host and former heart surgeon Dr. Oz in mid-November to lead two of the largest taxpayer-funded federal programs. The agency provides coverage for about 160 million Americans, accounts for more than $1 trillion in annual spending and was recently granted the power to negotiate lower drug prices.
Novo Nordisk, the manufacturer of Ozempic and Wegovy, has been a marketing client of companies founded by Dr. Oz from 2009 to 2019, the Post reported Dec. 2. The drugs might be covered by Medicare and Medicaid if a 2024 Biden administration proposal is enacted during the Trump administration. They could also face upcoming negotiation talks with CMS, which will release the list of 15 medications chosen for negotiations by Feb. 1.
His connections to the companies CMS oversees goes further than one drug company.
Dr. Oz and his family have heavily invested in several healthcare and wellness companies. As of 2022, these holdings included a stake in UnitedHealth Group worth as much as $600,000, a stake in Amazon worth as much as $2.4 million and stakes in fertility treatment providers worth as much as $6 million, NPR reported Nov. 22.
It is unclear if Dr. Oz still holds investments in these companies, and if he does, whether he plans to divest his shares or mitigate conflicts of interest in another way, according to the report.
"Having ongoing financial ties to a healthcare company would create a disincentive to do the job the American people need done by the person in his position," Walter Shaub Jr., former leader of the Office of Government Ethics, told the Post. "The situation could be an ethical morass, unless he is truly willing to alter his finances and business dealings."
Nick Clemens, a White House transition spokesperson for Dr. Oz, told the Post that, as CMS administrator, the nominee "will work to expand access, improve care and get Americans the best results in the world for every dollar spent on healthcare."