'Murky': NY Times ties Dr. Oz's fortune to Medicare Trump has chosen him to oversee
A deep dive New York Times investigation has linked much of Dr. Mehmet Oz’s massive fortune to the Medicare and Medicaid programs President Donald Trump has nominated him to oversee.
The celebrity TV doctor is estimated to have made as much as $355 million through business and family ventures, the Times reported.
And a delve into his financial background showed clear ties to the programs he’s been chosen to regulate, and relationships with multiple companies that would be affected by decisions he’d make in the new role.
One of them, the Times revealed, is Medicare Advantage, a private for-profit company that targets older Americans who are eligible for Medicaid. Oz not only promoted it on his show, but is a licensed broker for the company in nearly every U.S. state, the Times found.
“He has been paid by medical device firms and health-related ventures, and his money was invested in a dizzying array of businesses,” the Times reported.
“Many of those companies would be affected by any decisions he would make in the government post and many already benefit from agency funding.”
Last week, Oz made ethics filings claiming he'd sell his interests in 70 companies in an effort to avoid accusations of conflicts of interest. They include $600,000 in United Health Group stock, the company that is the largest provider of private Medicare plans, according to the report.
He also vowed to sell up to $26 million he’d invested in Amazon, which has many medical interests including an online pharmacy.
But the Times called at least some of the filings "murky."
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“Still, he has several limited liability companies — Oz Works and Oz Property Holdings among them — and the nature of their operations is not known,” reported the newspaper.
“He has no plans to close them and the filings state that he would remain an official at some.”
Washington University law professor Kathleen Clark told the Times his filings gave “the appearance of disclosure without disclosure.”
“You can sell assets, and if you have a specific contractual agreement you can end it. But I can’t even tell from his disclosures what direct or indirect arrangements he has," she added.
Oz’s representatives didn’t answer questions from the Times.
Oz, if confirmed by the Senate, wold run the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, overseeing health insurance used by half of Americans with a $1.5 trillion annual budget. The confirmation hearing has not yet been scheduled.
“Government spending toward the private Medicare plans amounts to about $500 billion a year,” the Times reported.
“The plans have been heavily scrutinized, faulted by lawmakers and regulators for systemic overbilling and unjustified denials of payment for patient care. The very agency Dr. Oz would run recently cracked down on overpayments and forced insurers to be more transparent when they refuse to pay for patients’ care.”