Dr. Mehmet Oz, who was nominated by President-elect Donald Trump to lead the nation's health insurance regulator, has invested in companies that do business with the government agency he runs.
Mr. Oz, who was chosen by President Trump to run Medicare, Medicaid and insurance markets under the Affordable Care Act, disclosed these disclosures when he filed financial disclosures during his unsuccessful 2022 Pennsylvania Senate campaign. He held up to $33.7 million in company stock.
The TV talk show host owns between $280,000 and $600,000 in UnitedHealth Group and between $50,000 and $100,000 in CVS Health, both of which offer health insurance plans under Medicare Advantage. Provided.
He also had between $5.8 million and $26.7 million at Amazon and between $1.6 million and $6.3 million at Microsoft. Microsoft, two major technology providers for the Centers for Medicare and Medicare Services, was the agency he ran.
Accountable.US, a left-leaning group that compiled part of the investigation, reviewed Securities and Exchange Commission filings and found no evidence that Mr. Oz sold any Amazon or Microsoft stock since the 2022 filing. He said there was no.
In a statement to USA TODAY, Brian Hughes, a spokesperson for Trump and Vance's transition, said in response to a question whether Oz still owns these stocks: “All nominees and appointees are “We comply with the ethical obligations of government agencies.”
Mr. Oz will be required to fill out the same form after he is officially named administrator of the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services.
How are these companies connected to Medicare?
Oz in 2020 said The federal government should make insurance available to all Americans through Medicare Advantage, a program through which private insurers sell Medicare-regulated plans to the elderly and disabled.
In 2022, Oz owned stock in UnitedHealthcare's parent company, which covered 29% of Medicare Advantage patients. in 2024according to the medical organization KFF, formerly known as the Kaiser Family Foundation. CVS Health covers an additional 12%.
“Dr. Oz's conflict of interest poses a serious threat to the health and safety of seniors, but President-elect Trump doesn't seem to care as long as the insurance industry's big donors are happy.” Accountable・Tony Kirk, executive director of US, said: Statement to USA TODAY.
Oz also owned $33 million in assets in Amazon and Microsoft. The agency's latest budget calls Amazon Web Services and Microsoft Azure Government “the two primary cloud service providers for hosting systems and data.”
Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., and six other senators wrote: letter to oz On Tuesday, he asked if he would withdraw “from all financial assets related to the insurance industry” and distance himself from any decisions affecting insurance companies in which he has a financial interest.
“Given your financial ties to private insurance companies and your view that the traditional Medicare program is “highly dysfunctional,'' and your advocacy for eliminating it completely, “It is not clear that he is qualified for this important job,” the senators wrote.
Oz also owned between $5 million and $25 million in a digital health company called ShareCare, and received dividends between $100,000 and $1 million, according to 2022 disclosures.
2022, Share Care announced One of the company's brands was “available as a free in-home personal care benefit to more than 1.5 million Medicare Advantage members.” The number reached 2 million people in 2023. company Now private At the beginning of this year.
Nick Clemens, Mr. Oz's spokesperson for the Trump-Vance transition team, told USA TODAY that Mr. Oz had sold his ShareCare shares, but when asked whether Mr. Oz still owned any other shares, didn't touch it.
Dr. Oz's ethical requirements
The Senate must approve the appointment of a Medicare administrator. That means Oz, like any Cabinet appointee, will be responsible for filling out the same ethics forms he filled out when he was running for the Pennsylvania Senate in 2022.
Ethics officials from the Office of Government Ethics and the Department of Health and Human Services are then responsible for reviewing the disclosures for potential conflicts of interest and developing ethics agreements.
“There are always ways to avoid conflicts of interest, even when you're investing in something that can create these complications,” said Delaney Marsco, director of ethics at the Campaign Legal Center, a good government organization. says. He said many candidates choose to divest from disputed assets within 60 or 90 days of appointment.
In other cases, people may choose to remove themselves from decisions that affect their finances, Marsko said. She said it would be easier for Mr. Oz to walk away from technology contracts than health insurance issues.
“CMS and the private insurance companies are so closely tied to Medicare Advantage that almost everything he touches can impact those (health insurance) stocks,” she said.
