Trump taps Dr. Mehmet Oz to lead Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services
Oz will lead the agency that oversees Medicare and Medicaid.
President-elect Donald Trump has named Mehmet Oz, a television personality and surgeon, to run the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid.
“He will also cut waste and fraud within our Country’s most expensive Government Agency, which is a third of our Nation’s Healthcare spend, and a quarter of our entire National Budget,” Trump said in a statement announcing the pick on Tuesday.
Trump said that in his role, Oz will work closely with Robert F. Kennedy Jr., whom the president-elect has chosen to lead the Department of Health and Human Services.
Oz unsuccessfully ran for a Pennsylvania Senate seat in 2022 but has no experience leading a large government bureaucracy. The CMS oversees Medicare and Medicaid, among other services.
Dr. Oz demonstrated broad appeal as a TV host
As a cardiothoracic surgeon, Oz gained prominence with prestigious research awards and multiple patents for surgical methods and devices related to heart transplants.
Oz catapulted to fame in 2009, first as an expert voice on Oprah Winfrey’s show “Oprah,” then as the host of his own Emmy Award-winning “The Dr. Oz Show.”
Oz captured millions of viewers with a variety of segments.
He hosted the then-First Lady Michelle Obama in one segment — they learned dances and spoke about her efforts to get America moving — and students of Sandy Hook Elementary School in another.
He also spoke about chemicals in food and natural methods to lose weight and whiten teeth.
Shortly before his show went on air, and became an instant success, Esquire named Oz “the most accomplished and influential celebrity doctor in history.”
He has faced criticism in healthcare
Oz has previously come under scrutiny for some of the advice on his TV show, including weight loss supplements and diet plans.
His statements about garcinia cambogia, a supplement derived from the rind of a tropical fruit, led a class action lawsuit alleging that Oz misrepresented the products as a “revolutionary fat busters” and “miracles in a bottle.” The suit resulted in a $5.25 million settlement.
Oz attracted a backlash from medical professionals during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic when he appeared to suggest that re-opening schools might be “worth the trade-off” if it increased mortality by 2-3%, or a few thousand deaths according to one estimate. He later walked back the comments, saying he misspoke.
Also during 2020, Oz promoted the anti-malaria medicine hydroxychloroquine as a treatment for COVID-19, attracting the attention of then-President Trump. Studies at the time the drug was effective in coronavirus patients.
Oz continued encouraging the White House to push the treatment. Financial disclosures later showed he had a financial stake in two companies that supply hydroxychloroquine (worth at least $615,000 in one company and between $15,001 and $50,000 in the other, according to the disclosures).
During his Senate run in 2022 against stroke survivor John Fetterman, Oz said his opponent would never have had a stroke had he “ever eaten a vegetable in his life,” prompting more than 100 doctors to organize against his political campaign.
Columbia University, where Oz previously served as a vice chair of surgery among other roles, removed him from its website and cut ties in 2022.
