Senate Confirms Mehmet Oz to Oversee CMS

On Thursday, Mehmet Oz, a Penn graduate, was confirmed by the US Senate to be the administrator of the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services. 

The announcement on April 3 follows President and 1968 Wharton graduate Donald Trump’s November appointment of Oz, who has an MD from the Perelman School of Medicine and an MBA from Wharton in 1986, as the leader of the organization. Along party lines, Oz was approved 53-45, with two senators not voting. 

CMS oversees the administration of the federal Medicare, Medicaid, and Children’s Health Insurance programs on behalf of the Department of Health and Human Services. Oz will oversee a $1.5 trillion organization that offers health coverage to more than 160 million people nationwide in his role as CMS administrator. 

HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. initially promoted the slogan “Make America Healthy Again” during his confirmation hearing, and Oz embraced it.

“All great societies, all great societies, protect their most vulnerable, and I would argue we are a great people”, Oz said. “With that in mind, I commit to doing whatever I can, working tirelessly to ensure that CMS provides Americans with access to superb care, especially Americans who are most vulnerable, our young, our disabled, and our elderly.” 

Oz takes office in the middle of significant shifts at the agency.

A fact sheet issued by HHS states that CMS plans to reduce its workforce by around 300 employees. It is yet to face the massive cuts that have been announced for other HHS agencies, which are expected to reduce its staff by 20,000.

Significant Medicaid cuts and the enforcement of additional work requirements have been topics of discussion in Congress. Oz expressed support for job requirements at his hearing, but he would not say if he supports the reduction.

“It doesn’t have to be going to a job,” Oz said. “It could be getting an education. It should be showing that you want to contribute to society.” 

Oz has established himself as a well-known television personality. Oz became a professor at Columbia University and a cardiothoracic surgeon after graduating from Penn. He hosted “The Dr. Oz Show,” a syndicated talk show, from 2009 to 2022, during which he made unsupported medical claims.

Then-Lt. Gov. John Fetterman beat Oz, the Republican candidate for one of Pennsylvania’s Senate seats in 2022. Oz sided with Trump during his campaign and made several appearances at MAGA rallies. 

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UA Redirects Funds to Student Groups After Budget Cuts

In order to reallocate funds for student organizations for the upcoming academic year, Penn’s Undergraduate Assembly called a Special Budget Meeting on April 2.

Following a 5% reduction in the UA’s allocated funds from the Provost’s Office, changes were revealed on Wednesday evening. According to College senior and UA President Ria Ellendula, Penn is making a “proactive and preemptive” effort to “cut funding by a certain percent” as part of the funding cuts that have been proposed by the Provost’s Office and the Office of Student Affairs. 

Penn may be subject to an endowment tax that is unprecedented and “ranging anywhere from 5% to 40%” according to Ellendula. Consequently, the administration at Penn implemented a 5% reduction in funding for every department, including the funds that the Provost’s Office had allocated to the UA.

At the meeting, UA members and other participants voiced concerns about student organizations who are already struggling financially and asked about the possibility of using the approximately $170,000 in reserve funds.

“We have talked to Katie Bonner, who’s the Executive Director of the Office of Student Affairs, and she said that depending on certain variables, there’s a likelihood that we could drain the reserve fund up to 150k,” Ellendula said. 

Chandler Cheung, UA Treasurer and a senior in engineering, emphasized the importance of taking into account the reserve fund’s possible future needs as well as the unprecedented nature of the financial cuts.

“We don’t know how long these cuts will last, and the Provost’s office doesn’t know what’s going to happen,” Cheung said. “So I wouldn’t recommend draining the entire reserve fund just for this short-term need now.”

The proposed budget cuts were presented by financial representatives from MERT, the Student Activities Council, the Social Planning and Events Committee, and other organizations. Each speaker was followed by a quick Q&A session.

In the budget reallocation plan, SPEC funding was reduced by about 7%, or $83,350, with $15,000 taken out of the organization’s concerts talent category, which contributes to the annual Spring Fling. 

According to a chart shown during the conference, the SAC would also be cut by about 2%, or $32,000.

The Nominations and Elections Committee suggested reducing its funding by $4,500, which would represent a 49% reduction from the organization’s initial budget. 

“We are cutting about half of our budget, it hurts to say,” an NEC representative said. “But we recognize the importance of this. This is an unprecedented situation, and we’re willing to make some of these sacrifices.”

MERT intends to completely eliminate its Modernization Fund, which was previously allocated $1,700, and reduce its Equipment and Supplies allocation from $12,300 to $11,750. The change results in an overall budget cut of $2,250, or about 12% of their initial budget.

With a $1,000 decrease from the Freshman Events Fund, a $7,000 cut from the Sophomore and Senior Events Funds, and a $6,000 cut from the Junior Events Fund, the four Class Boards intend to reduce their budgets by $21,000.

“It’s important to notice that there are denominators and numerators here,” UA Speaker Leo Solga said. “It looks as though the sophomore and senior [funds] are cutting about the same. But when it comes to percentages, it varies widely. There’s an effort to preserve senior spending capability due to Feb Club and other such traditions.”

In order to fully defund UA Operations’ $500 budget and UA Steering’s $400 initial allocation, the UA itself reduced its budget by 15%.

The budgets of PennLabs and the Student Committee on Undergraduate Education will be cut by roughly 11% and 10%, respectively.

“My understanding is that we have quite a lot of leeway and flexibility [with amendment procedures] because we are not passing the budget,” Solga said. “These are not budget meetings. Technically speaking, what we’re in is an ‘emergency meeting.’” 

To complete the revised budget, the UA will hold a second budget meeting on Wednesday of next week.