Dr. Mehmet Oz, President Donald Trump’s choice to take the helm of the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS), faced questions on Capitol Hill about his stance on future cuts to Medicaid. These are cuts that could result in reduced access to Medicaid-funded home and community-based services.
On Friday, Oz testified before the Senate Finance Committee. After the hearing, members of the committee will schedule a vote. Trump first nominated Oz for the role back in November.
Oz is a physician and a former TV personality who hosted the series The Dr. Oz Show for 13 seasons.
When asked, by Sen. Ron Wyden (D-Ore), if he planned to oppose any cuts to the Medicaid program, Oz refused to provide a yes or no response. Instead, Oz spoke on the importance of making the Medicaid program viable.
“I want to make sure that patients today, and in the future, have resources to protect them if they get ill,” Oz said. “The way you protect Medicaid is by making sure that it’s viable at every level, which includes having enough practitioners to afford the services, paying them enough to do what you request of them, and making sure that patients are able to use Medicaid.”
Last month, the U.S. House of Representatives approved a budget resolution that doesn’t target Medicaid, specifically, but could eventually lead to cuts to the program. A Congressional Budget Office analysis released March 5 indicated that the administration’s budget goals could not be achieved without Medicaid cuts.
Overall, about 4.5 million individuals receive home-based care services through Medicaid annually, according to data from KFF.
During the hearing, Sen. Maggie Hassan (D-N.H.) called the possible cuts to Medicaid “draconian.”
In his opening remarks, Oz discussed what he views as the issues with the current Medicaid program.
“Health care expenditures are growing 2% to 3% faster than our economy,” he said. Not sustainable. The Medicare Trust Fund will be insolvent within a decade. That’s 2.9% taken out of your paycheck. Medicaid is the number one expense item in most states, consuming 30% of those state budgets, and that’s crowding out essential services like schools and public safety that many of you spent your careers trying to develop. The health care cost per person in this country is twice that of other developed nations.”
Medicare Advantage
Aside from Medicaid cuts, Medicare Advantage (MA) also emerged as a key topic during the hearing.
Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) pointed out that MA over payments cost at least $83 billion in a single year. She juxtaposed this with the potential cuts to Medicaid.
“$83 billion remember that number,” she said during the hearing. “Last month, Republicans in the House passed a budget framework that sets up $88 billion in annual cuts to health care, Medicaid funding for seniors in nursing homes and for people with disabilities who have a home health aide. Dr. Oz, I have a simple question, if you had the choice, would you rather cut waste, fraud and abuse by a Fortune 50 health insurance company in Medicare Advantage, or cut funding for Medicaid, which covers half of all seniors in nursing homes and one in three of America’s children.”
Oz stated that his goal was to improve health care for individuals living in the U.S., adding that Warren’s argument was rational.
Last year, Sens. Warren, Wyden and Dick Durbin (D-Ill.) penned a letter that voiced concern over Oz’s nomination. The lawmakers called out Oz’s push to eliminate traditional Medicare, as well as his financial ties to private health insurers, or MA organizations.
Ahead of the hearing, Warren pushed for Oz to divest from companies that would create financial conflicts of interests.
The Alliance’s Takeaways
Scott Levy, chief government affairs officer for the National Alliance for Care at Home (the Alliance), pointed out that Oz would bring a practitioner, provider perspective to the role of CMS administrator.
“That’s a pretty different point of view than we’ve had over the last couple of administrators so far,” he told Home Health Care News.
Levy also noted The Alliance would be paying close attention to how the potential Medicaid cuts shake out.
However, he said he believes that Oz statements at the hearing do not indicate that the CMS nominee is targeting home and community-based programs.
“The cuts from any home and community-based services that are being discussed right now, we know are those that are tied up in the reconciliation process, and that’s still relatively early,” Levy said. “Even though there are numbers that are thrown out there. There are no hard policies that specifically say that there will be cuts. Looking more towards how Congress is going to move forward in the coming days and weeks, to really see where those cuts are going to be implicated within the Medicaid benefit will be something that we are closely watching.”
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