President Donald Trump's nominee for CMS administrator, Mehmet Oz, MD, has pledged to divest from multiple healthcare companies if confirmed to lead the agency.
In a Feb. 16 filing with the Office of Government Ethics, Dr. Oz outlined his commitments to avoid any conflicts of interest. If confirmed, he would divest from a wide range of organizations, including HCA Healthcare and UnitedHealth Group, as well as pharmaceutical companies and tech companies that are heavily involved in the healthcare sector.
In November, President Trump nominated the talk show host and former heart surgeon to lead CMS. Dr. Oz and his family have heavily invested in several healthcare and wellness companies. As of 2022, those holdings included a stake in UnitedHealth worth as much as $600,000 and stakes in fertility treatment providers worth as much as $6 million, NPR reported. Novo Nordisk was also a marketing client of companies founded by Dr. Oz from 2009 to 2019, the Washington Post reported.
In the filing, Dr. Oz disclosed that he would resign from advisory positions at several companies, including iHerb, a nutritional supplement company, and Sandbox AQ, a tech company. He also pledged to divest his stakes in entities such as Amazon, Apple and Walmart within 90 days of his confirmation.
Here is a list of the healthcare companies Dr. Oz plans to divest from:
- Abbvie
- HCA Healthcare
- Eli Lilly
- UnitedHealth Group
- McKesson
- Pfizer
- Cencora