The 45-year-old has been a pivotal part of negotiating the president’s “most favored nation” drug price deals, in which pharmaceutical companies have agreed to lower their prices for prescriptions in the United States to match those in other developed countries.

But before his time in government, Klomp served for three years on the board of directors for Maven Clinic, an online fertility care company specializing in, among other women’s health issues, in vitro fertilization and surrogacy.

Trump, who dubbed himself the “father of IVF” on the 2024 campaign trail, has embraced artificial reproductive technologies as a means to reverse the multidecade trend of declining fertility rates in the U.S., but the issue has divided the GOP’s anti-abortion wing.

The anti-IVF strain of the anti-abortion movement is based on the moral belief that embryos are fully human and should not be indefinitely frozen or discarded, as is common practice in the U.S. Likewise, surrogacy has increasingly become a bugbear among ardent social conservatives, following the logic that children and the women who carry them to term ought not be commoditized.

Anti-abortion advocates more broadly have also struggled with Trump during his second term in office, particularly over HHS’s decision to uphold the Biden-era policy of allowing abortion pills to be sold online.

Nevertheless, the administration has made expanding access to IVF a central part of its healthcare agenda, to which Klomp has contributed.

Klomp’s familiarity with the fertility industry made him an even more integral part of negotiating an MFN deal with EMD Serono, the leading maker of fertility drugs necessary for IVF and intrauterine insemination.

Senior administration officials told reporters last year that patients could see their prices for the drugs involved in one IVF cycle drop from the current $3,400 to as low as $1,200 per cycle, depending on income level.

Additionally, the Trump administration also disseminated a finalized rule that would allow employers to voluntarily provide fertility benefits to their employees as an optional product, similar to vision or dental, starting in 2027. The new policy would benefit companies such as Maven Clinic that work with employers to coordinate fertility care for their employees.

Multiple sources confirmed to the Washington Examiner that Klomp was not involved in the development of the new fertility insurance benefit policy, but his connections to the fertility and women’s health industry could shape how the Trump administration carries forward its pro-baby policy should he be confirmed to the deputy secretary post by the Senate later this year.

Klomp’s rise in healthcare and journey to Maven

Klomp’s trajectory in healthcare management started with admiration for his father, an OB-GYN who delivered thousands of babies during his career.

Klomp started this degree program at Brigham Young University in pre-medicine, but switched to economics after serving a mission for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, more commonly known as the Mormon church. After graduating in 2004, he went on to earn an advanced degree in business from Stanford University.

In 2014, Klomp became the CEO of Collective Medical, an electronic health records sharing company that facilitated data sharing among some of the largest hospital systems and insurance companies in the U.S.

Klomp reportedly used his position in the health economy during the early stages of the first Trump administration to advocate loosening restrictions on sharing health data, and he participated in a 2017 White House meeting on health record interoperability.

In late 2020, Klomp’s Collective Medical was acquired by PointClickCare Technologies in 2020 for a reported $650 million, after which he resigned. Two years later, the health tech mogul joined the board of directors for Maven Clinic, where he became deeply involved in the day-to-day operations and strategic trajectory of the company.

Klomp said in a 2022 interview for his company profile that part of the reason he was passionate about joining the company was that he and his wife struggled to become parents, having “a first-hand glimpse into some of the challenges that arise in the start-of-family journey.”

But Klomp said he and his wife were privileged to have had “our own maven” in his father, who was able to care for them not only with obstetrics experience but also with intimate knowledge of their personal circumstances.

“But what about everybody else? Every woman and every family deserves a Maven,” Klomp said in his company interview.

Trump fertility policy, Maven, and Klomp

The Trump administration has expanded access to IVF both through reducing fertility drug prices and through its fertility insurance rule, being finalized later in July.

The new rule, first announced in October 2025, effectively separates IVF and other fertility treatments from standard medical health insurance. That, in theory, lowers premium costs for health insurance and makes fertility benefits more affordable for employers who want to provide such care as part of their compensation packages.

Maven and other fertility benefit manager companies stand to expand their reach through the new policy. Although individuals can coordinate care directly through Maven, it and other fertility benefits managers fit more naturally into an employer-sponsored health plan in which companies give their employees a set amount of healthcare dollars to spend toward fertility care.

Multiple sources confirmed to the Washington Examiner that Klomp did not connect Maven to the White House Domestic Policy Council, which was the leading team that drafted the rule along with the Labor Department. Also, Klomp’s financial disclosure documents indicate that he divested his interests in Maven Clinic upon taking office at the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services in 2025.

But Klomp’s role negotiating the EMD Serono fertility drug deal has been a central talking point for the administration in its broader healthcare and pro-family policy.

The EMD Serono deal was the main feature of the launch of the TrumpRx direct-to-consumer discount site, where patients can get access to MFN drug prices directly through the pharmaceutical companies that have partnered with the administration.

Senior administration officials told reporters last year that patients could see their prices for the drugs involved in one IVF cycle drop from the current $3,400 to as low as $1,200 per cycle, depending on income level.

Lowered barriers to IVF access are also featured prominently on the Moms.gov website, an HHS resource for new and expectant parents.

Kennedy, during a Mother’s Day event at the White House, called the website “one-stop shopping for IVF, for prenatal care, for postnatal care” and “a huge win for the [Make America Healthy Again] movement and the pro-life movement.”

The White House and HHS denied multiple requests for comment regarding Klomp’s role in developing future fertility policy for the Trump administration.

Cautious optimism from anti-abortion groups

Anti-abortion advocates hope that Klomp, as the second in command at HHS, might use the opportunity to at least open a dialogue about IVF policy moving forward.

Patrick T. Brown, head of the conservative Ethics and Public Policy Center, told the Washington Examiner that he was cautiously optimistic. Brown’s group has been at the helm of the fight against the Food and Drug Administration’s abortion pill policy since the organization released a study last year finding the complication rates from at-home abortions were 22 times higher than the FDA drug label indicates.

When the fertility benefits rule was highlighted alongside Moms.gov in May, Brown told the Washington Examiner that the rule was a “split-the-baby” approach that acknowledged the concerns of anti-IVF advocates by not creating an Obamacare-style mandate.

Following Klomp’s nomination as deputy HHS secretary, Brown said he could see having “a fruitful working relationship” with Klomp should he be confirmed.

“I’m sure that someone with Klomp’s experience is familiar with the concerns that the pro-life movement has had with the Trump administration’s lack of action on their priorities,” Brown said. “It will be essential for Klomp to hear pro-life concerns about actions that could cheapen how the federal government treats unborn human life.”

The White House and HHS denied multiple requests for comment regarding Klomp’s role in developing future fertility policy for the Trump administration.