Topline
Center for Medicare & Medicaid Services Director Seema Verma spent government funds on high-priced Republican consultants to raise her personal political profile, an investigation conducted by four Democrat-controlled House committees found.
WASHINGTON, DC – APRIL 07: Seema Verma, administrator of the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid … [+]
Key Facts
The report found that Verma, who was confirmed in 2017, “abused” the federal contracting process to “stock CMS with handpicked Republican consultants,” bolstering a Health and Human Services Inspector General report that found the contracts were not administered and managed “in accordance with Federal requirements.”
Both reports found consultants took on major roles within CMS, performing “inherently governmental” tasks such as managerial decisions, and the House report found they were provided “market sensitive” information months before it was publicly available.
The primary task of the consultants was to “promote” Verma’s public profile and personal brand, and “expander her network,” which they did by pitching interviews and profiles to magazines and columnists, helping place her on lists of like Washingtonian’s “Most Powerful Women” and Politico’s “50 most powerful people in DC,” and getting her nominated for leadership awards.
For this work, the consultants were paid handsomely, with some charging hourly rates of between $280 and $330; consultant Pam Stevens was paid $3,400 to get Verma on Politico’s “Women Rule” podcast and $1,117 to secure a profile of Verma in AARP The Magazine.
The report also cites multiple “questionable costs,” such as a $150,000 cancellation fee for a 2017 bus tour, $13,000 to pitch Verma for “Awards/Panels,” $3,000 for a “girl’s night” at USA Today reporter Susan Page’s home and $500 for a list of “suggested media/influencers” to meet with Verma.
Forbes has reached out to an HHS spokesperson for comment.
Key Background
CMS suspended its contracts with the consultants in April 2019 after news reports brought them to public attention. However, the report found that consulting firm Porter Novelli “continued to work for CMS under its other task orders with CMS” after the stop-work order, with one employee emailing CMS employees a list of “target publications” such as Good Housekeeping and Oprah Magazine in June 2019. It also found that in June, a Porter Novelli employee sent CMS an interview request from HealthLeaders Media, which published a profile of Verma in September that year. The report also alleges Verma “may have violated applicable law governing the agency’s use of appropriated funds,” casting the consulting fees as “personal expenses” for Verma “beyond her role as CMS Administrator,” thus violating a prohibition on using government funds for personal expenditures. It also found Verma may have violated a prohibition on spending funds for “publicity or propaganda purposes,” which includes communications aimed at “self-aggrandizement, covert propaganda, and purely partisan materials.”
Big Number
$3.5 million. That’s how much consultants working directly with Verma were paid, out of a total of $6 million paid by CMS to consultants between June 2017 and April 2019, according to the report. The bulk of that, nearly $3 million, went to DC communications firm Nahigian Strategies.