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TV's Dr. Oz is Trump's nominee to run Medicare and

Medicaid

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Oz's financial interests conflict with role, senator says

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Warren says Oz's past endorsements raise impartiality

concerns

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Oz to appear before Senate Finance Committee on Friday

By Ahmed Aboulenein

WASHINGTON, March 12 (Reuters) - President Donald

Trump's nominee to lead the agency overseeing Medicare should

divest financial ties to healthcare and pharmaceutical companies

that could benefit from his policy decisions, Democratic U.S.

Senator Elizabeth Warren said on Wednesday.

Television personality and surgeon Dr. Mehmet Oz is

scheduled to appear on Friday before the Senate Finance

Committee, on which Warren sits. The panel will hold a

confirmation hearing for his nomination to be administrator of

the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, a wide-reaching

agency with annual spending of $2.6 trillion.

In a letter addressed to him seen by Reuters, Warren called

on Oz to divest from his financial holdings related to

industries regulated by the agency and commit to strong ethics

safeguards.

Oz owns healthcare stocks in UnitedHealth Group ( UNH ),

which administers Medicare Advantage plans, and drugmakers

Abbvie ( ABBV ) and Eli Lilly ( LLY ) which manufacture drugs

his agency negotiates prices for, his latest ethics disclosure

shows.

He owns stocks and serves as advisor to several companies

selling nutritional supplements, medical diagnostic

technologies, and botanical products, as well as a cardiology

practice and a retirement resort.

Oz has offered to divest much of that and resign his

advisory posts, Warren noted with appreciation.

"Still, given your close ties to the industry that you would

regulate, if you are confirmed, the public would have reason to

question your impartiality and commitment to serving the

public's interest," she wrote.

Oz must fully divest from these conflicts and pledge not to

use his position to enrich himself or his business associates,

she said. This would exceed the legally required divestment.

She also called for Oz to commit to a four-year lobbying ban

after leaving his post.

Warren has been successful in getting information out of

Trump's nominees; she pressed Secretary of Health and Human

Services Robert F. Kennedy Jr. on his conflicts in a similar

letter that led to his updating his ethics agreement and

revealing further conflicts.

The letter is unlikely to affect Oz's chances of getting

confirmed. Republicans control the Senate and have so far

allowed even the most controversial of Trump's nominees to sail

through the process.

The agency runs Medicare, the federal health insurance

program for people aged 65 or older and the disabled, and

oversees Medicaid, the state-based health insurance program for

low-income people. The two programs provide health insurance for

over 140 million people in the U.S.

It also runs the main program for income-based

government-subsidized health insurance under the Affordable Care

Act, also known as Obamacare.

Oz would take over at a time when Republicans are proposing

deep cuts to Medicaid.

'DEEP TIES'

Oz serves as a managing member or advisor to several

companies with a financial stake that are affected by the health

benefits agency's policies on how much to reimburse hospitals

and providers for medical services in Medicare and Medicaid and

what services and medicines they cover, Warren wrote.

The letter detailed his past endorsements on his show,

website, and social media of pharmaceutical products, such as

Novo Nordisk's diabetes drug Ozempic. The drug will

be subject to Medicare's drug price negotiations for 2027, a

process he would oversee.

Warren also highlighted Oz's paid promotion of Medicare

Advantage, a privately administered alternative to traditional

Medicare, which has been accused of overcharging the government

by billions of dollars.

Oz regularly promoted Medicare Advantage on his syndicated

daytime television talk show, which aired between 2009 and 2022,

in segments sponsored by a website selling the plans.

His financial interest in companies such as iHerb, a

supplement retailer, and a patent for a circulatory valve repair

device, could further create conflicts, Warren said.

The letter also pointed to Oz's stock ownership and advisory

roles at Eko Health and SandboxAQ, both of which could have

business before the agency, as well as his significant stock

holdings in ShareCare, a digital health firm engaged in Medicare

Advantage services. Oz has pledged to divest these stocks within

90 days after his confirmation.

Such ties could influence policy in ways that benefit these

companies at the expense of taxpayers and patients, Warren

warned.