Oz faces senators’ questions on cuts, calls CMS nomination a ‘monumental opportunity’

Key takeaways:

• Mehmet Oz, MD, MBA, has been nominated to lead CMS.
• Oz responded to questions on several topics, including telehealth, DOGE, prior authorization, AI and rural health.

Senators questioned Mehmet Oz, MD, MBA, on Medicaid budget cuts, nursing shortages and his prior claims about miracle drugs during a committee hearing to be the next administrator of CMS.

“Dr. Oz,” a surgeon, professor emeritus of cardiothoracic surgery at Columbia University and former television personality, has been nominated by President Donald J. Trump to head the agency.

“All great societies protect their most vulnerable,” Oz said to the members of the U.S. Senate Committee on Finance. “Education has prepared me for this precise moment in time, which I believe offers a monumental opportunity, and a challenge, for us at CMS.”

Key moments

• Oz listed multiple ideas he would pursue if confirmed, including empowering beneficiaries through greater transparency and tools and being aggressive in modernizing tools to reduce fraud, abuse and waste.
• Ron Wyden, a Democrat from Oregon, butted heads with Oz on several topics, such as how he will “reign in” the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), which was granted access to CMS’ systems and technology. Oz said he has talked to no one in the Trump administration about DOGE but that if confirmed, “I intend to spend my first precious few weeks... speaking to the staff, raising morale, getting people excited and addressing what’s going on with DOGE and learning a lot more.”
• Oz avoided giving a direct response when pressed by Wyden to give a yes or no answer about whether he would oppose cuts to Medicaid. “I want to make sure that the patients today and in the future have resources to protect them if they get ill,” Oz said. “The way you protect Medicaid is by making sure that it’s viable at every level, which includes having enough practitioners to afford the services [and] paying them enough to do what you request of them.”
• Oklahoma Republican James Lankford asked Oz about pharmacy benefit managers (PBMs), of which the three biggest in the U.S. made billions by overcharging specialty generic medications. “Although [PBMs] do provide an important service... they also create a pricing spread, and that’s where some of the problems occur,” Oz said. “The lack of transparency into what goes on when that pill leaves the pharmaceutical company and ends up in your home is where a lot of the money’s made.”
• Both Wyden and Lankford questioned Oz on the shortage of nurses, particularly in rural communities and in nursing homes. According to the University of St. Augustine for Health Sciences, 1.2 million new registered nurses will be needed by 2030 to address the shortage. “There should be a registered nurse available around the clock 24/7 [in nursing homes],” Wyden said. Oz called it a “complicated question” but said the issue “would be one of the earlier things I focus on.”
• Oz called prior authorization a “pox on the system” when asked about it by Louisiana Republican Bill Cassidy. CMS previously finalized a rule that would streamline the process and make it more transparent, which experts told Healio is a step in the right direction but that more needs to be done. “There needs to be a mechanism to confirm that procedures are worthwhile,” Oz said.
• As the deadline for Congress to extend Medicare telehealth flexibilities looms, Montana Republican Steve Daines asked about ensuring the accessibility of health care, especially for rural patients. The solution “is to link [telehealth] to large institutions in that area,” Oz said. “So, an institution that’s a big one... might be able to be a telehealth partner to a rural health clinic. That is how we’ll build telemedicine [and] telepsychiatry in places like Montana, especially where we have many people suffering from undiagnosed mental health illnesses.”
• New Hampshire Democrat Maggie Hassan highlighted several products — like raspberry ketone and green coffee extract — that Oz called on his television show “miracle drugs” for diseases like obesity but have been proven otherwise by research. Regarding green coffee extract, Oz said he never called it as such and that research into it is ongoing, but confirmed it was fraudulently marketed. “I take great pride in the research we did at the time to identify which of these worked and which ones didn’t,” Oz said. When asked, he said he was paid nothing to promote the supplements.
• Oz discussed the utilization of AI in health care delivery multiple times throughout the hearing, noting it provides relief from the burdens of paperwork for physicians and nurses. “AI can be used for good or for evil, and it — to a large extent — depends on who’s using it and for what purpose... I think AI could play a vital role in accelerating pre-authorization.”

What’s next?

Oz, if confirmed, would report to HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.

Nominees only need a simple majority to be approved by the committee or confirmed by the Senate. Republicans control the Senate and have a one-seat majority on the committee.

References:

• Hearing to consider the nomination of Mehmet Oz, of Pennsylvania, to be administrator of the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, vice Chiquita Brooks-LaSure, resigned. U.S. Senate Committee on Finance. https://www.finance.senate.gov/hearings/hearing-to-consider-the-nomination-of-mehmet-oz-of-pennsylvania-to-be-administrator-of-the-centers-for-medicare-and-medicaid-services-vice-chiquita-brooks-lasure-resigned. Accessed March 14, 2025.
• Musk's DOGE granted access to US Medicare and Medicaid systems. Available at: https://www.reuters.com/world/us/doge-aides-search-medicare-agency-payment-systems-fraud-wsj-reports-2025-02-05/. Published Feb. 5, 2025. Accessed March 14, 2025.
• Nursing shortage: A 2024 data study reveals key insights. Available: https://www.usa.edu/blog/nursing-shortage/. Accessed March 14, 2025.