Senators Grill Dr. Oz on Potential Medicaid Cuts and Payment Issues During Confirmation Hearing
Instead of directly addressing inquiries about possible spending cuts, Oz concentrated on enhancing health, patient care, and payment systems through technology. Dr. Mehmet Oz, the renowned physician nominated to lead the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, encountered pointed questions from senators across party lines during his nearly three-hour confirmation hearing.
President Donald Trump nominated Oz to head the federal agency that provides health coverage to more than 160 million individuals and allocates one in five taxpayer dollars through Medicare, Medicaid, the Children’s Health Insurance Program, and the Health Insurance Marketplace. The nominee appeared before the Senate Committee on Finance on March 14.
A Harvard University alumnus, Oz later earned a medical doctorate from the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine and a master’s in business administration from the Wharton School. Although he was an attending surgeon at New York-Presbyterian Hospital and a former professor at Columbia University, Oz is perhaps most recognized as the host of a popular syndicated television program focused on health-related topics.
Democrats, alarmed by the risk of health coverage cuts for low-income Americans, questioned the nominee regarding his stance on potential funding reductions to Medicaid. Related stories from Republicans emphasized the need to improve the health care system by addressing some of its most expensive and frustrating issues.
The Future of Medicaid
Ranking Member Ron Wyden (D-Ore.) raised the Medicaid funding issue early in the hearing, bluntly asking Oz if he would oppose cuts to the program. “And I want a yes or no,” Wyden stated. Others, including Sen. Michael F. Bennet (D-Colo.), posed a similar dichotomous question: “Do you or do you not oppose the Medicaid cuts that many in the administration have indicated support?”
The inquiries stemmed from concerns over the House GOP budget proposal, which aims for $1.5 trillion in spending cuts over a decade, including $880 billion expected to be identified by the House Committee on Energy and Commerce. According to the Congressional Budget Office, Medicaid represents 93 percent of that committee’s spending authority, suggesting that cuts to the program are plausible if the desired reductions are met.
“Republicans are gearing up to deliver the most significant blow to Medicaid in history,” Wyden asserted, which would imply “ripping health insurance away from millions of families struggling to get by.”
Oz refrained from stating that he would oppose reductions in Medicaid spending. Instead, his responses highlighted methods for enhancing Americans’ health, which would ultimately lead to decreased healthcare costs. “I think it’s a belt-and-suspenders response,” Oz remarked in reply to Bennet’s question. “We need to invest significantly in the care of young people, as probably 40 percent of young individuals in America are on Medicaid.”
He proposed that empowering individuals to make healthier nutrition choices, facilitating easier access to health information, and encouraging workforce participation would be more beneficial than maintaining the existing system. “We have a generational opportunity to fix our health care system and help people stay healthy for longer,” Oz stated during his opening remarks.
Democrats seemed dissatisfied with the doctor’s responses regarding Medicaid funding. Sen. Maria Cantwell (D-Wash.) encapsulated their concerns: “All my colleagues will want to know about Medicaid. We want to understand whether you will cut Medicaid. We don’t support cutting Medicaid.”
Program Problems, Solutions
Sen. John Cornyn (R-Texas) expressed frustration with Democrats’ apparent reluctance to reform the program. “There are individuals in Congress who want nothing to change regarding our health care delivery system,” Cornyn remarked. “That includes, presumably, $521 billion in fraudulent payments within our entitlement programs.”
While some Democrats, including Bennet and Wyden, acknowledged the need to combat fraud in the Medicaid system, others feared that Republican efforts might incorrectly focus on beneficiaries instead of providers. “[Let’s] ensure we’re not unjustly removing a family and their daughter from Medicaid because of misconceptions about who actually benefits,” urged Sen. Catherine Cortez Masto (D-Nev.).
Republicans pressed Oz to address issues within the federal health payment system, including fraud, soaring drug prices set by pharmacy benefit managers, and unnecessary treatment delays due to prior authorization requirements. Sen. James Lankford (R-Okla.) voiced dissatisfaction that a bipartisan initiative to regulate pharmacy benefit managers had failed last year.
Pharmacy benefit managers are firms that determine drug prices and manage drug claims, often owned by large corporations that also run insurance companies and pharmacy chains. Lankford noted that their practices led to the closure of 450 independent pharmacies last year and inquired what authority Oz would require to tackle the issue.
Oz responded that the secretive pricing and rebate collection practices of benefit managers contribute to skyrocketing prices. “The lack of transparency in the process from when that pill leaves the pharmaceutical company to when it arrives at your home is where much of the profit is generated,” Oz stated.
Sen. Bill Cassidy (R-La.) pointed out that prolonged treatment delays due to prior authorization requirements hinder both providers and patients. “Sometimes care delayed is care denied,” Cassidy remarked, seeking Oz’s proposed solutions to this obstacle. Calling prior authorization “a pox on the system,” Oz suggested that the number of procedures requiring pre-authorization could be significantly reduced, and artificial intelligence could expedite coverage decisions almost instantaneously. “Credit card approval doesn’t take three months,” he mentioned. “We can implement a similar system so that pre-authorizations could occur swiftly.”
If confirmed, Oz has stated he will employ technological solutions to enhance Medicare and Medicaid. This would encompass communication tools that empower beneficiaries to better manage their own health care, real-time information for physicians about their patients, alleviating nurses of excessive paperwork through artificial intelligence, and modernizing tools for detecting fraud and abuse.
If recommended by the committee, Oz will face a confirmation vote in the full Senate. If confirmed, he will report to Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.
