The deputy secretary is, in practice, one of the most powerful people in American health policy. The person in this job controls the operations of a $2.6 trillion department that oversees Medicare, Medicaid, the CDC, the FDA, and the agencies that set guidance on everything from vaccines to food safety.
President Trump has nominated Chris Klomp to fill that role. For families tracking what’s happening inside the federal health system right now, that name is worth knowing.
Who Is Chris Klomp?
Klomp is a tech entrepreneur who built his career at the intersection of healthcare data and value-based care. He founded and led Collective Medical, a real-time care collaboration platform that became the largest of its kind in the United States by connecting health systems, insurers, providers, and state governments to share patient data and improve outcomes.
He holds a B.A. in Economics and English from BYU and an MBA from Stanford, and he worked at Bain Capital and Bain & Company before building Collective Medical. He has also served on the boards of Nomi Health, Maven Clinic, and InnovaCare Health, and co-founded Endurance Companies, a San Francisco-based multi-family investment office focused on healthcare innovation.
Klomp has been serving as chief counselor to Secretary Robert F Kennedy, Jr since February.
What Has He Actually Done?
Klomp’s fingerprints are on some of the most consequential health decisions of the past year.
He led negotiations with 17 pharmaceutical companies to lower drug prices through what the administration calls “most-favored-nation” agreements, voluntary deals in which drugmakers offer medicines at reduced rates through the TrumpRx program. Trump has publicly credited Klomp by name, calling him “a real star” during a White House event announcing a deal with drugmaker Regeneron.
He oversaw the search for the CDC’s new director and Klomp pushed for Dr. Erica Schwartz, a vaccination proponent with deep public health credentials, to get the job. He also recruited Sean Slovenski, former president of Walmart Health, as CDC deputy director and Dr. Jennifer Shuford, Commissioner of the Texas Department of State Health Services, as CDC chief medical officer.
He’s been a consistent presence at major health conferences, often representing HHS in place of Kennedy, and was described by the Milken Institute as a driver of healthcare reform at the state and federal level, with a particular focus on value-based care and health data interoperability.
Why This Matters for Families
HHS decisions shape the vaccines recommended for your children, the drugs your family can afford, and the agencies trusted to respond when a health crisis hits.
Klomp’s background is different from most who have held power at HHS previously. He built a company from scratch focused on the problem that frustrates families most about American healthcare — the system doesn’t share information well, and patients fall through the cracks as a result. That’s the lens Klomp brought into government.
During a February 2026 podcast, Klomp laid out an agenda focused on cutting drug prices, cracking down on healthcare fraud, rethinking how AI fits into reimbursement, and tackling chronic disease. He called CMS “the most powerful change agent in healthcare.” He’s also spoken about bringing insurers, health systems, and providers to the table to reshape policy faster than regulation alone can move.
Too often, health policy gets made by people who understand Washington but have never had to build something that actually works for patients. Klomp built exactly that kind of organization.
His nomination still requires Senate confirmation before the Senate Finance Committee but that is expected soon. If confirmed, he will be one of the most consequential health officials in Washington and families deserve to know who is making these decisions.