Advamed CEO Scott Whitaker praised Mehmet Oz’s “firsthand experience” with medical technology on Tuesday as he welcomed President-elect Donald Trump’s choice of the celebrity physician to lead the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services.
The head of the influential medtech trade group said Oz understands the impact medical technologies can have on preventing disease progression and restoring health.
“As a practitioner, he has also seen firsthand the negative impact a lack of access to these technologies can have on these same patients,” Whitaker said in a statement after Trump announced his nomination of Oz as CMS administrator.
“We look forward to working with Dr. Oz to strengthen access to and coverage of the transformative medical technologies, treatments, and diagnostic tests that help Americans in every corner of the country to live longer, healthier lives,” Whitaker said.
The agency, currently led by Chiquita Brooks-LaSure, oversees health insurance coverage for more than 160 million Americans through Medicare, Medicaid, the Children’s Health Insurance Program and Affordable Care Act plans.
While the Food and Drug Administration regulates and authorizes medical devices for the U.S. market, the CMS determines whether Medicare will cover technologies and treatments for beneficiaries.
Oz, a heart surgeon turned television talk show host, holds a patent on Abbott’s Mitraclip device that treats mitral valve regurgitation.
In 2022, Oz ran as the Republican candidate for a Pennsylvania senate seat but lost to Democrat John Fetterman.
Oz is known for championing healthy lifestyle choices but drew criticism during a Senate hearing in 2014 over claims he made about certain weight loss products. Oz also promoted hydroxychloroquine as a COVID-19 treatment before the FDA revoked an emergency use authorization for the drug after finding that it was ineffective and led to serious side effects.
In his statement, Trump said Oz will incentivize disease prevention and “cut waste and fraud” in the CMS.
“Dr. Oz will work closely with Robert F. Kennedy Jr. to take on the illness industrial complex, and all the horrible chronic diseases left in its wake,” Trump wrote in his announcement on the social media platform Truth Social.
Trump last week nominated Kennedy to lead the Department of Health and Human Services, which oversees the CMS and the FDA.
Last Friday, Advamed’s Whitaker said the trade group would work with Kennedy “to ensure the policy environment continues to help safe and effective medical technologies get to patients in need.”
The appointments of Oz and Kennedy require Senate confirmation.
