WASHINGTON (AP) — The wealth of the Medicare and Medicaid Services Center, led by President Donald Trump, the celebrity cardiac surgeon Dr. Mehmet Oz, leads in part by a part of the expansion of for-profit healthcare companies according to new submissions Government ethics report, if the power is confirmed.
In the filing, the 64-year-old former talk show host promised to withdraw from the companies within three months of confirmation and said he would not be involved in anything that could affect his investment until then.
According to an analysis of the disclosure, Oz's net assets ranged from $98 million to $332 million, which lists the asset value range but does not provide an exact dollar figure. The Wizard of Oz shot famously and shot millions of dollars from his daytime talk show. His recent disclosures suggest he also holds a multimillion-dollar stake in health insurance, maternity, pharmaceutical and vitamin companies.
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Oz said in the filing that he will sell portions of his important and diverse portfolio, from retail giants such as Walmart to tech companies such as Apple.
His investment lineup includes up to $5 million in Inception Fertility, a company with a network of fertility clinics; drug giant Abbvie up to $100,000; and up to $600,000 along with UnitedHealth Group, the largest health insurer in the United States. He also holds up to $5 million with NVIDIA, an artificial intelligence company that equips hospitals.
His job as an IHERB consultant, a website that sells health and beauty supplements, has earned up to $25 million in company stock for Oz, and he promises “no later than 90 days after confirmation, he promises that he will guarantee Confiscated. He said that if confirmed, he would resign.
Lawrence Gostin, a public health professor at Georgetown University, said his investments touched almost every aspect of the healthcare system.
“From services to artificial intelligence to medical products, he has fingerprints and financing for the entire healthcare system,” Gostin said. “In my opinion, these conflicts are so intertwined in the financial situation of him and his family. Together, I don't know how he got himself out of the situation.”
An Oz spokesperson did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
If confirmed by the Senate, OZ will be responsible for more than half of the country's plans that rely on health insurance: Medicaid, Medicare and the Affordable Care Act.
Medicaid provides nearly free healthcare coverage for millions of the poorest children and adults in the United States, while Medicare provides health insurance for the elderly and those with disabilities. The Affordable Care Act is an Obama-era program that provides health insurance plans for millions of Americans who are not eligible for government-assisted health insurance but do not receive insurance through their employers.
As an administrator of CMS, Oz will decide how the government covers procedures, hospitalizations and medications in these programs, and the reimbursement rates provided by doctors and other providers for their services.
Oz's campaign failed to represent Republicans in the U.S. Senate in 2022. During the campaign, he called for the expansion of Medicare Advantage, an increasingly popular version of Medicare run by private insurers accused of cheating the government of billions of dollars through the scheme.
Before turning to politics, Oz was a well-known cardiac surgeon at Columbia University. His reputation rose on the “Oprah Winfrey Performance”, and he appeared as a weight loss diet, Botox and anti-aging techniques. Eventually, he took the show on his own, a popular show that has attracted profound criticism from the scientific community. Some colleagues at Columbia University called on him to make claims about his products on TV. Senator also scolded him at a 2014 hearing on weight loss drugs he advertised
However, he expressed concern with Robert F. Kennedy Jr. Kennedy and the Wizard of Oz about pesticides and unhealthy foods.
Oz's confirmation hearing has not been arranged to become a CMS administrator.
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