Seema Verma, the former CMS administrator for the Trump administration, is joining Oracle, Oracle Chairman David Feinberg told Healthcare Dive on Tuesday.
Verma will be senior VP and general manager of Oracle Life Sciences, the company’s clinical trials business. Oracle plans to officially announce the news on Thursday.
Oracle Life Sciences helps pharmaceutical companies conduct clinical trials to bring new drugs to market. A company spokesperson did not respond to a question on why Verma, whose background is overwhelmingly in the payer space, is a good fit for the division. Verma did enact a number of interoperability measures while at the CMS, experience that could be valuable as Oracle, which is currently integrating EHR vendor Cerner that it bought for $28 billion last year, steps further into healthcare.
While at the CMS, Verma oversaw a number of controversial policies, including expanding short-term limited duration health insurance plans and work requirements and block grants for Medicaid programs. She also championed then-President Donald Trump’s effort to repeal and replace the Affordable Care Act, and promulgated policies that critics said destabilized the federal ACA exchanges.
While in office, Verma also faced ethical and legal controversies over her use of taxpayer funds. Reports found the administrator spent millions in taxpayer dollars on communications consultants to polish her public image, in violation of federal regulations.
Prior to being nominated by Trump to lead the CMS, Verma was a healthcare consultant who worked with several state governments on Medicaid reform and expansion.
Since leaving the government in 2021, Verma has worked as a consultant, including as a senior adviser to private equity firms TPG and Cressey. She currently serves on the board of directors for health tech companies Lumeris, Monogram, Wellsky and Lifestance.
