Dr. Mehmet Oz. Photo: Ryan Collerd/Bloomberg
President-elect Donald Trump announced Tuesday on the Truth Social social media service that Dr. Mehmet Oz is his choice for the post of administrator of the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS).
If the Senate confirms Oz to fill the CMS administrator post, Oz would share oversight over fully insured employer-sponsored group health plans and all Affordable Care Act commercial health insurance rules and programs with the Internal Revenue Service and the Employee Benefits Security Administration.
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He would also participate in federal efforts to regulate, or refrain from regulating, products such as group dental insurace, critical illness insurance and hospital indemnity insurance.
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He could also affect what kinds of health care providers, such as nurse practitioners, can seek reimbursement from Medicare and Medicaid programs.
CMS is part of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. Earlier, Trump announced Robert F. Kennedy Jr., a lawyer who has campaigned for healthier food and reduced use of vaccines, would be his HHS secretary nominee.
“Dr. Oz will work closely with Robert F. Kennedy Jr. to take on the illness industrial complex, all the horrible chronic diseases left in its wake,” Trump said in the post. “He will also cut waste and fraud within our country’s most expensive government agency, which is a third of our Nation’s Healthcare spend, and a quarter of our entire national budget.”
Oz has attracted attention over the years, and infuriated many traditional physicians, through his work as a television talk show guest and medical host from 2003 through 2022. On "The Dr. Oz Show," he featured guests who promoted health care strategies such as faith healing.
Early in the COVID-19 pandemic years, he supported use of ivermectin, a drug that was found to be ineffective for treating COVID, as a response.
Oz "has started small companies and knows the challenges our small business owners face because of government regulations that stifle growth and opportunity.," according to his 2022 campaign website, when he ran unsuccessfully to represent Pennsylvania in the U.S. Senate.
Dr. Mehmet Oz. Photo: Ryan Collerd/Bloomberg
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Allison Bell
Allison Bell, a senior reporter at ThinkAdvisor and BenefitsPRO, previously was an associate editor at National Underwriter Life & Health. She has a bachelor's degree in economics from Washington University in St. Louis and a master's degree in journalism from the Medill School of Journalism at Northwestern University. She can be reached through X at @Think_Allison.
