By Noah Tong

President-elect Donald Trump has nominated television personality Dr. Mehmet Oz, better known as Dr. Oz, to run the federal agency administrating Medicare and Medicaid.

If picking Robert F. Kennedy Jr. as Secretary of the Department of Health was considered out of left field, Trump choosing Oz surely doubles down on that unorthodox strategy.

“America is facing a healthcare crisis, and there may be no physician more qualified and capable than Dr. Oz to Make America Healthy Again,” said Trump in a statement. “Dr. Oz will work closely with Robert F. Kennedy Jr. to take on the illness industrial complex, and all the horrible chronic disease left in its wake.”

In choosing Oz for the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS), Oz will be the chief overseer for Medicare, Medicaid and plans sold under the Affordable Care Act. He would replace the outgoing Secretary Xavier Becerra, who is rumored to be exploring a run for governor of California.

Trump said Oz would reduce waste and fraud within CMS, which could be interpreted as cutting federal health programs, and push disease prevention. Oz will need Senate confirmation, though Trump has expressed a desire to install members of his administration through recess appointments or any means necessary.

Oz, a cardiothoracic surgeon first noticed by Oprah Winfrey, ran a successful daytime television program, The Dr. Oz Show, for 13 seasons. He served as a professor of surgery at Columbia University beginning in 2001.

Though Oz—once considered “America’s doctor”—has enjoyed an abundance of fans over the years, the scientific community turned against him for his claims about dietary supplements and COVID-19 treatments, among other reasons.

In 2022, he ran for the Senate in Pennsylvania as a Republican against then-Lieutenant Governor John Fetterman. Though he beat now-Senator-elect Dave McCormick in the primary, he lost to Fetterman in the general election. Oz also served on President Trump’s council on sports, fitness and nutrition in 2018, but President Biden later removed him from that role because he was running for office and did not share Biden’s views on health, USA Today reported at the time.

Oz graduated from Harvard and earned a joint degree from the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine and Wharton Business School.

Many of Trump’s cabinet nominees were selected to cut costs at federal agencies.

The Federation of American Hospitals released a one sentence statement after Oz’s nomination: “We congratulate Dr. Mehmet Oz on his nomination to be CMS Administrator, and we look forward to working with the Administration to advance Americans’ health care outcomes and protect 24/7 patient care.”

This is a developing story.