Truemed Divestment and the Conflict-of-Interest Controversy

Ethics documents obtained by the New York Times showed that Calley Means held $25–50 million in Truemed shares through November 2025 while serving as the company’s president during his special-government-employee stint at HHS. Truemed is the wellness-payments company Means co-founded that helps consumers spend tax-free HSA/FSA dollars on food, exercise, and supplements via letters of medical necessity.

In November 2025, Senator Adam Schiff and Representative Jake Auchincloss wrote to the White House arguing that Truemed benefited from MAHA policies such as HSA expansion. Means has responded that he never touched HSA policy as an SGE — pointing to “wins like removing food dyes and flipping the food pyramid” — and says he fully divested when joining HHS full-time, leaving Truemed entirely, a departure confirmed by the company’s general counsel Joe Vladeck. The White House says he complies with ethics requirements and plays no role in HSA policymaking.

Criticism has continued on other fronts. CSPI’s Peter Lurie has questioned Truemed’s business model, and a May 2025 Vanity Fair profile by Katherine Eban questioned Means’s whistleblower origin story and his account of his prior lobbying work. Means has called these attacks smears from vested interests. This page carries the controversy under the site’s for-and-against coverage policy; the divestment itself is treated as resolved on Means’s stated account.

Timeline

• Through November 2025: Means holds $25–50M in Truemed shares while serving as company president and an HHS special government employee (NYT-obtained ethics documents).
• May 30, 2025: Vanity Fair’s Katherine Eban profile questions his whistleblower origin story.
• November 2025: Sens. Schiff and Rep. Auchincloss write to the White House arguing Truemed benefits from MAHA-era HSA policy.
• Late 2025: Means says he fully divested and left Truemed entirely upon joining HHS full-time (confirmed by Truemed general counsel Joe Vladeck); the White House says he complies with ethics requirements and has no HSA policymaking role.