Health department watchdog finds wrongdoing by Medicare/Medicaid chief, HHS attacks watchdog
newsdepo.com
Well now is just a great time for a key member of the Trump administration's Health and Human Services (HHS) team to be under a big corruption shadow. The HHS inspector general has found that Seema Verma, who is in charge of the Centers for Medicare and MedicHealth department watchdog finds wrongdoing by Medicare/Medicaid chief, HHS attacks watchdog
Well now is just a great time for a key member of the Trump administration's Health and Human Services (HHS) team to be under a big corruption shadow. The HHS inspector general has found that Seema Verma, who is in charge of the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS), used her position to steer millions of dollars in federal contracts to friends. More than $5 million in taxpayer money went to communications consultants apparently hired to burnish Verma's image, who circumvented civil servants in the CMS communications department «CMS improperly administered the contracts and created improper employer-employee relationships between CMS and the contractors,» the inspector general wrote. «CMS's administration of these contracts put the Government at increased risk for waste and abuse.» In her first two years, the report finds, Verma frequently circumvented the civil servants in the communications department and personally directed her hand-picked contractors to write her speeches, secure media appearances, and «even accompan[ied] one for a 'Girl's Night Out' networking event.» Read more