She was president and CEO of the company, which worked with state insurance and public health agencies for the implementation of the Affordable Care Act.

Mitch Daniels with a Medicaid alternative, featuring health savings accounts that required participants to contribute monthly, even if only a few dollars.

[13][14] In 2016, her firm collected $316,000 for work done for the State of Kentucky as a subcontractor for Hewlett-Packard, according to documents obtained by the AP through public records requests.

[21][22] She was supportive of President Trump signing into law legislation that permitted states to withhold federal funds from facilities that provide abortions.

[28][29] Verma made substantial cuts to the ACA Navigator program, making it more difficult for individuals to obtain coverage during open enrollment.

[37] The clashes extended to co-workers at CMS, as Verma was cited by her first Chief of Staff in an HHS investigative report as being "insecure" and someone who "lashes out" at subordinates.

[40][41] The president of the Association of Health Care Journalists condemned this action as "bullying"[40] and commented that "Verma seems to think she can bury inconvenient facts by threatening reporters with blacklisting.

"[42] On March 2, 2020, the office of Vice President Mike Pence announced Verma's addition to the White House Coronavirus Task Force.

[47][48][49] On August 20, 2018, Verma filed a claim requesting that taxpayers reimburse her for jewelry and other items she alleged was stolen on a work-related trip to San Francisco, including a $5,900 Ivanka Trump-brand pendant.

Included in the consultants' work were proposals to have Verma featured in magazines like Glamour and have her invited to prestigious events to increase her public persona.

[57] In July 2020, the HHS Inspector General reported that Verma spent more than $5 million in taxpayer funds to do communications work, and to help raise her profile.

[58][59][60] In September 2020, Democrats on four congressional committees concluded [57] that she "may have violated federal law," leading Congress to request a formal legal opinion from the Government Accountability Office.

[64][65][66] The consultants provided her with talking points on repealing the Affordable Care Act in 2017 and helped her write a 2018 opinion column under her name in the Washington Post, arguing for Medicaid work requirements.

[69] In 2021, Verma said she lost her CMS-issued cell phone two days before President Biden's inauguration, resulting in the elimination of all of its stored records.

[76] Born in Virginia, Verma moved several times across the United States with her family, and once lived in Taiwan for five years, before settling in the greater Indianapolis area.