Dr. Oz Makes No Assurances on Medicaid Funding Cuts
On March 14, Mehmet Oz, M.D., had his confirmation hearing before the Senate Finance Committee to become the new Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) Administrator. In a two-and-a-half-hour session, Dr. Oz mostly deflected concerns from either side of the aisle.
In his opening remarks, Oz voiced his intent to support Trump's plan to make Americans healthy again. He said President Trump's executive order on transparency shifts power to the American people. "We should incentivize doctors and our healthcare providers to optimize care." Oz said that artificial intelligence (AI) can assist with their workflow.
"Let's be aggressive in modernizing our tools to reduce fraud, waste, and abuse," Oz mentioned as a focus point. "This will stop unscrupulous people from stealing from vulnerable Americans."
Before his hearing, Democratic U.S. Senator Elizabeth Warren requested that the nominee divest financial ties to healthcare and pharmaceutical companies that could benefit from his policy decisions. During the hearing, however, she focused on his views about whether private Medicare plans are overcharging the government, reporters Reed Abelson and Susanne Craig of The New York Times wrote. "She and Dr. Oz seemed to agree on the need to tackle potential fraud and waste."
As Abelson and Craig wrote, "Democrats seemed most frustrated by Dr. Oz’s stance toward Medicaid, the state-federal program that covers 72 million low-income Americans. 'All my colleagues want to know, are you going to cut Medicaid?' asked Senator Maria Cantwell, Democrat of Washington. But Dr. Oz, who has not spoken much about the program he would also oversee as head of the agency, did not answer directly. He said he did not know the details of the Republican budget discussions, in which lawmakers are looking at hundreds of billions of dollars in cuts that could result in people’s loss of coverage as it became more difficult to enroll and states had to shoulder more of the burden."
Meanwhile, with regard to issues around the Medicare Advantage program, Healthcare Dive’s Emily Olsen wrote on March 17 that “Dr. Mehmet Oz, President Donald Trump’s pick to lead the CMS, pledged to scrutinize Medicare Advantage insurers in an effort to rein in costs during a confirmation hearing last week. ‘We’re actually apparently paying more for Medicare Advantage than we’re paying for regular Medicare. So it’s upside down,’ he said in front of the Senate Finance Committee Friday.” As Olsen noted, “Oz has previously advocated for expanding the MA program and worked as a broker for the plans, according to the New York Times. Additionally, he owns stock in UnitedHealth Group, the nation’s largest MA insurer — though he has said he would divest his stake in some healthcare and pharmaceutical companies if confirmed as CMS administrator.”
Further, Olsen wrote, “The nominee also argued the CMS could cut down the amount of prior authorization requests, where providers have to receive approval from patients’ insurers before they perform a service. Claims denials by MA plans, including through the use of artificial intelligence tools, has become a concern for lawmakers and regulators. Oz suggested the CMS could limit the number of procedures subject to prior authorization to 1,000, compared to about 5,500 procedures today.”
The GOP-led committee will schedule a vote on whether to send Oz's nomination to the full Senate.
