President-elect Donald Trump has tapped Mehmet Oz, MD, as his nominee for administrator of the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services.
1. "America is facing a healthcare crisis, and there may be no physician more qualified and capable than Dr. Oz to make America healthy again," Mr. Trump wrote in a Nov. 19 Truth Social post.
2. Dr. Oz was born in Cleveland and grew up near Philadelphia. He holds an undergraduate degree from Harvard University and a dual medical degree and MBA from the University of Pennsylvania’s Perelman School of Medicine and Wharton Business School.
3. As a professor emeritus at Columbia University, Dr. Oz has also led the heart institute at New York-Presbyterian Medical Center. His research has spanned healthcare policy, minimally invasive surgery, heart replacement and complementary medicine.
4. Dr. Oz gained national prominence as host of "The Dr. Oz Show," earning nine Daytime Emmy Awards. He also served as a health expert on The Oprah Winfrey Show for six seasons.
5. In 2022, Dr. Oz was the Republican nominee for the U.S. Senate in Pennsylvania. He lost the general election to Democrat John Fetterman.
6. On Nov. 14, Dr. Oz voiced support for Mr. Trump’s nomination of Robert F. Kennedy Jr. as Secretary of Health and Human Services, which oversees CMS. "Americans need better research on healthy lifestyle choices from unbiased scientists," Dr. Oz said in a post on X.
7. Dr. Oz has faced scrutiny for promoting unverified weight-loss products, leading to a 2014 U.S. Senate hearing where he admitted some promotional language was overly "flowery." A 2014 BMJ study found fewer than half of recommendations on medical talk shows, including his, were evidence-based. Additionally, during the COVID-19 pandemic, Dr. Oz promoted hydroxychloroquine as a potential treatment, citing early feedback from health experts, CNBC reported.
8. In his Nov. 19 post, Mr. Trump outlined Dr. Oz's goals as CMS administrator, including reducing fraud and waste in the nation’s most expensive government agency and incentivizing disease prevention.
"He will ensure Americans get world-class healthcare results for the money we spend," Mr. Trump said.
9. Healthcare decisions during a second Trump administration could include the future of ACA premium tax credits, set to expire in 2025, and the growth of Medicare Advantage. Analysts expect Trump to consider a less costly alternative to the ACA if proposed. Heritage Foundation's Project 2025 recommends default enrollment into private Medicare Advantage plans, though Trump has distanced himself from the plan, per KFF Health News.
10. While a 2017 article in the American Medical Association’s Journal of Ethics called Dr. Oz's credentials "impeccable," it also referred to him as "a physician visibly out of step with his profession," citing controversial representations of topics ranging from weight loss interventions to whether genetically modified foods caused cancer.