The watchdog group American Oversight sued the Trump administration to learn whether a top healthcare official violated ethics rules by working on issues related to her former consulting clients.
The federal lawsuit filed Friday focuses on the work of Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services, or CMS, Administrator Seema Verma. She used to head the healthcare consulting firm SVC Inc., which had contracts with states such as Indiana, Arkansas, Iowa, and Kentucky. While at the firm, she worked closely with then-Indiana Governor Mike Pence to create the state’s Medicaid expansion program.
The lawsuit filed in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia wants the agency to comply with five Freedom of Information Act requests.
“The public has a right to know whether Administrator Verma is running CMS impartially, and with the administration refusing to make transparent basic records, we’re forced to go to court to shed light on her potential conflicts of interest,” said the watchdog group, founded in March 2017 by several Obama administration staffers and aides for high-ranking Democrats.
Verma sold the consulting firm to Health Management Associates in 2017 and apparently divested her interests in the company’s business, the lawsuit said.
However, Sen. Ron Wyden, D-Ore., wrote to the ethics official at the Department of Health and Human Services seeking answers about a communication that Verma had with Dennis Smith on March 17. Smith is the special adviser for Arkansas’ Department of Human Services.
“I am growing increasingly concerned that [HHS] is not effectively implementing its process to enforce Administrator Verma’s ethics agreement and the standards of ethical conduct,” Wyden wrote in July 2017.
HHS recently approved Arkansas’ federal waiver to impose work requirements for certain Medicaid beneficiaries. The agency also approved waivers for Kentucky and Indiana to install work requirements.
American Oversight sought FOIA requests on documents surrounding her involvement in Medicaid waivers for states she worked with while a consultant. It also asked for all emails between Verma and state officials in Arkansas, Indiana, Kentucky, Iowa, Ohio, South Carolina, and Virginia.
The lawsuit seeks to force CMS to comply with the FOIA requests.
CMS did not immediately return a request for comment.
