HHS/NOMINATIONS/TRUMP AS PRESIDENT: “Five months after President Donald Trump nominated Stephen Parente to be an assistant secretary for Health and Human Services, the nation’s largest health insurer quietly gave a $1.2 million gift to a tiny academic research center that Parente helped found and served as director over the past decade.
Parente, who is still awaiting confirmation as HHS’ assistant secretary of planning and evaluation, for which he was nominated in April, would head an office that often assesses policies that affect the insurance industry. It is currently researching the impact of Obamacare on the insurance market.
The gift — which comes after a long association between Parente and UnitedHealth Group, along with other major health-insurance carriers — raised concerns among watchdogs…
UnitedHealth, which confirmed its decision this summer to give $1.2 million over three years to the Medical Industry Leadership Institute at the University of Minnesota — the largest in the center’s history — said its decision to make the gift had nothing to do with Parente’s nomination to HHS.”
-Dan Diamond, “Backed by UnitedHealth, HHS nominee would now help oversee it,” Politico, Oct. 30, 2017 05:01am