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Oracle taps former Trump official Seema Verma to lead Cerner business

By Brody Ford Bloomberg

Oracle Corp.’s acquired health records unit will be led by Seema Verma, former head of Medicare in the Trump administration, who joined Oracle last year to run its life sciences businesses.

Verma, now an executive vice president, is expanding her role to oversee Oracle Health, the re-branded name for Cerner Inc., as the software maker works to integrate the company it bought almost two years ago for about $29 billion. Verma’s appointment to run the unit was announced in December, according to a January internal memo viewed by Bloomberg.

Oracle’s ownership of Cerner has faced some hiccups as revenue is increasing slower than Wall Street analysts’ projected. Management said in September that the company is working to shift Cerner’s business to cloud subscriptions, which means it must change the structure of contracts with many customers. It has also cut jobs in the unit, and Chief Executive Officer Safra Catz has spoken of driving profitability to “Oracle standards.”

Oracle didn’t respond to a request for comment on Verma’s expanded role.

Some of Cerner’s most important customers are in the public sector. Its $10 billion deal with the Department of Veterans Affairs to modernize the medical records system is one of the largest information technology contracts in the federal government, and has received significant scrutiny.

Before joining Oracle, Verma was administrator of the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services in the Trump administration, where she was known as a critic of the Affordable Care Act. “Her pro-market policies advanced market competition,” wrote Oracle Executive Vice President Mike Sicilia in an April 2023 memo when Verma first joined the company, adding that her work on the White House Covid Task Force led to widespread adoption of telehealth and free vaccines.

Oracle’s top executives have long aligned themselves with Republican politicians. Billionaire co-founder and Chairman Larry Ellison has donated to Republicans including former President Donald Trump and one-time presidential hopeful Senator Tim Scott. CEO Catz advised Trump during his transition after the 2016 presidential election and was viewed as a potential Cabinet appointee.