Dr. Mehmet Oz Confirmed by US Senate to Lead Medicare and Medicaid Agency

WASHINGTON — Former heart surgeon and TV pitchman Dr. Mehmet Oz was confirmed Thursday to lead the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services.

Oz became the agency’s administrator in a party line 53-45 vote.

At 64 years old, Oz is taking on the responsibility of overseeing health insurance programs for about half of the country. This includes managing Medicare, Medicaid, and Affordable Care Act coverage. As he steps into this new position, Congress is in the midst of discussions about potential cuts to the Medicaid program, which currently offers assistance to millions of individuals who are economically disadvantaged or disabled.

While Oz has not explicitly stated his stance on proposed cuts to the Medicaid program, he has outlined his plans for the future. These plans involve promoting healthier lifestyles, incorporating artificial intelligence and telehealth technologies into the healthcare system, and reassessing how healthcare services are delivered in rural areas.

During a recent hearing, Oz expressed his support for work requirements for individuals receiving Medicaid benefits. However, he emphasized that the bureaucratic processes should not serve as barriers that either compel beneficiaries to prove their employment status repeatedly or prevent them from maintaining their coverage.

Oz, who worked for years as a respected heart surgeon at Columbia University, also noted that doctors dislike Medicaid for its relatively low payments and some don’t want to take those patients.

He said that when Medicaid eligibility was expanded without improving resources for doctors, that made care options even thinner for the program’s core patients, which include children, pregnant women and people with disabilities.

“We have to make some important decisions to improve the quality of care,” he said.

Oz has formed a close relationship with his new boss, Robert F. Kennedy Jr. He’s hosted the health secretary and his inner circle regularly at his home in Florida. He’s leaned into Kennedy’s campaign to “Make America Healthy Again,” an effort to redesign the nation’s food supply, reject vaccine mandates and cast doubt on some long-established scientific research.

The former TV show host talks often about the importance of a healthy diet, aligning closely with Kennedy’s views.

While has has faced some criticism for promoting unproven vitamin supplements and holistic treatments – staples of the “MAHA movement” – he’s regularly encouraged Americans to get vaccinated.

Oz will take over CMS days after the agency was spared from the type of deep cuts that Kennedy ordered at other public health agencies. Thousands of staffers at the Food and Drug Administration, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, as well as the National Institutes for Health are out of a job after mass layoffs that started Tuesday.

CMS is expected to lose about 300 staffers, including those who worked on minority health and to shrink the cost of health care delivery.