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Pick for Medicare post faces questions on Indiana contracts

Posted at 6:56 AM, Feb 16, 2017
and last updated 2017-02-16 06:56:18-05

INDIANAPOLIS (AP) - President Donald Trump's pick to oversee Medicare and Medicaid consulted Vice President Mike Pence on health care issues while he was Indiana's governor.

It's a post Seema Verma maintained amid a web of business arrangements - including one that ethics experts say conflicted with her public duties.

Records show Verma and her small Indianapolis-based firm, SVC Inc., have collected more than $6.6 million in consulting fees from the state of Indiana since 2011. 

At the same time, she also received more than $1 million through a contract with Hewlett Packard, one of Indiana's largest technology vendors, which held a financial stake in the health care policies Verma helped shape.

Verma has agreed to sell SVC Inc. to a Michigan company within 90 days of her confirmation.