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January 17, 2017 at 08:25 AM
Sen. Charles Schumer, D-N.Y., has called for an investigation of Rep. Tom Price, R-Ga.
Price is President-elect Donald Trump’s pick to be the next head of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.
Related: Trump said to pick Tom Price to lead Health and Human Services
The Huffington Post reports Schumer took the action in response to allegations in a report by CNN that, in March 2016, Price bought shares in Zimmer Biomet, a medical device manufacturer, “days before introducing legislation that would have directly benefited the company.”
After the legislation had been introduced, the company’s political action committee donated to the congressman’s reelection campaign, CNN says.
The Huffington Post says members of Congress are permitted to invest in the stock market, as long as they report those investments, by the STOCK Act — which also prevents them from making investment decisions based on insider information they might learn because of their position in Congress.
But less than a week after Price, an orthopedic surgeon, bought the stock, according to the CNN report, the Georgia congressman introduced the HIP Act, which would have delayed until 2018 a Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) regulation that industry analysts warned would significantly hurt Zimmer Biomet financially once fully implemented.
The HIP Act would have derailed Medicare’s switch to bundled payments for joint replacements, which has proved to save money for the agency by paying a set (bundled) fee to hospitals for all care related to hip or knee replacement surgery; the bundled payment covers the period from the surgery date until 90 days later.
