Dr. Mehmet Oz could hold millions of dollars in investments in companies regulated by the federal agency Donald Trump has tapped him to lead.
During his failed Senate run in 2022, the former talk show host reported tens of millions of dollars in investments in health care, medical technology and food companies, according to the Los Angeles Times.
Last week, he was nominated by the president-elect to head the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS), a massive agency that provides healthcare coverage to more than 160 million Americans and enforces federal standards for health care suppliers and providers.
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When asked if his investments had changed since 2022—or if he would be willing to divest to avoid a conflict of interest—he refused to answer, the Times reported.
That’s a problem because if Oz is confirmed and he still holds the investments, it won’t be clear if he’s making decisions based on what’s best for Medicare and Medicaid patients, or on what’s best for his stock portfolio, critics told the Times.
For example, Medicare has congressional approval to negotiate prices directly with the companies that produce 10 medications. Oz could own stock in the companies that produce four of them.
His assets might also include a $600,000 stake in health care giant UnitedHealth Group, one of CMS’s biggest providers through its Medicare Advantage program. The company has been accused of over-charging the government, the Times said.
A former heart surgeon, Oz appeared regularly as a medical expert on The Oprah Winfrey Show before helming his own talk show from 2009 to 2022. He poured much of his wealth into health-related ventures, including fertility-treatment companies, hospitals, food companies, farming and livestock companies, and supplements that he hawked on his show.
He has invested indirectly in biotech and vaccine firms through venture-capital funds, and in 2022, he and his family held a $2.4 million stake in Amazon, which operates an internet pharmacy and primary care service that’s available to Medicare enrollees, according to the Times report.
The Daily Beast reached out to Dr. Oz and Trump’s transition team for comment.
