Calls to Empower Americans to be the “CEO of [Their] Own Health”
WASHINGTON — Today, Ways and Means Health Subcommittee Chairman Vern Buchanan led a hearing titled “Health at Your Fingertips: Harnessing the Power of Digital Health Data.” The hearing evaluated how wearable technology, artificial intelligence and remote monitoring can improve patients’ health, lower health care costs and encourage healthier lifestyles.
Witnesses included Dr. Kristen Holmes, Global Head of Human Performance at WHOOP; Josh Phelps, President of Winchester Metals Inc.; Andrew Zengilowski, CEO and Co-Founder of CoachCare; Dr. Jackie Gerhart, Chief Medical Officer at Epic Systems; and Sabrina Corlette, Research Professor at Georgetown University’s McCourt School of Public Policy.
Click here or the image above to view Congressman Buchanan’s opening remarks.
Here’s what Buchanan said about the importance of being the “CEO of your own health” and how innovation and support for employees can improve Americans’ health.
Wearable Technologies Will Enable Americans to Personally Manage Disease Prevention
Rep. Buchanan: “Dr Holmes, let me ask you, there has been a lot of progress made with multiple companies, as well as yours. What do you see as the future in the … next 2 to 4 years? I am very excited about the possibilities because I am a big [believer] in prevention, I don’t want people to get heart attacks and cancer in the first place, and anyway we can minimize that is a great thing for the country. We are spending 5 billion dollars annually, and people are getting sicker. … Why don’t you tell us your thoughts and your vision about where this industry is going to go? I was excited to hear [Secretary Kennedy] yesterday mention that he would like to see everybody with some kind of medical device that they could use to monitor their own activity in the next four years.”
Dr. Kristen Holmes, Global Head of Human Performance, WHOOP: “Thank you for the question, Chair Buchanan. I think at a very basic level, helping people understand their baseline is what very much gets us excited in terms of helping people manage their own individual health. We have to make that the norm. No one is coming to save us, right? … You said it yourself, Mr. Buchanan, we have to be the CEO of our own health. That is the promise of wearable technology, is that you can understand changes in baseline and how they might be linked to various lifestyle factors, right? So, this is, for me at a basic level, what is exciting. I think there is also an opportunity to tie together blood biomarkers with the physiological data to give people a more holistic picture and get ahead of what are preventable diseases.”
Supporting Small Businesses Who Invest in Their Employees’ Health
Rep. Buchanan: “Mr. Phelps, I was an employer for 30 years before I got here. Your biggest asset, as you know, is your employees. You want them to be well and perform their job at a high level. … How do we get other businesses involved, because it just seems like it is the right thing to do. ... I am excited to hear what your company is doing but we need to have more small businesses and more companies. …What are your thoughts on what more we can be doing or encouraging people to do?”
Josh Phelps, President, Winchester Metals Inc.: “The first thing is to get over this fear that there is a conversation you are not allowed to have as an employer with an employee, which is talking about their health. It is something that, for some reason, we just think is not a part of our daily role as an employer and manager. The second is that it is not expensive … you can make it as elaborate as you might want. But stopping somebody or a group of 4 to 5 people for 20 minutes and having a simple conversation about using glass instead of plastic or a wearable. Those kinds of things are not things that disrupt your workday; they do not have to cost you a lot of money through lost productivity, etc. … Third, I think there are resources out there, you look for them probably in your own communities—and my community is not a big community, it is small—but I had choices when I was looking for coaches to bring in who can help us with this. … Then educate yourself, I got myself certified as a health coach just in case stuff with our wellness coach we hired didn’t work out, I can do the stuff myself. That was the impotence of us doing it, and I think other employers could do the same thing. It is not that hard.”
Promoting Healthier Choices
Rep. Buchanan: “The way I look at it, we’re spending over $5 trillion ... and we’re getting sicker every year. We’re 66th in the world [in life expectancy]. Our children are at 20 percent obesity; it used to be 3 percent. You can’t serve in the service because 31 percent of the folks that would like to get in can’t get in because they’re obese. ... A lot of people are obese, 50 percent of the population. I’m just looking at the raw data.
“We’ve got to start taking more responsibility. You’ve got to encourage more people ... to be the CEO of their own life. ... As a community, we want to look after each other. ... I know everybody’s on yo-yo diets. I’ve been on them and all that, but I found a system 20 years ago, and it was a formula that made everything very simple for me. ... The top of the equation is nutritional food. How nutritional is the food you’re about to eat ... A lot of the food we eat is garbage, it’s overprocessed. And underneath the formula, it’s calories. So the essence is to make healthier choices. What is the most nutritious food with the fewest calories? And if you know what that is and you’re able to make those choices, then you never have to worry about your weight or your health again ...”
Buchanan has been a leading advocate in Congress for combating obesity and ending the chronic disease epidemic. Buchanan recently introduced the FORCE-FIT Act (H.R. 3750), which would establish a pilot program in the Department of Defense to provide access to Continuous Glucose Monitoring Systems (CGMs) for servicemembers with certain health conditions to track metabolic health data. In March 2025, Buchanan’s Chronic Disease Flexible Coverage Act (H.R. 919), which expands treatment options provided through employers’ healthcare coverage for Americans living with chronic diseases, passed the House with a unanimous bipartisan vote. In February 2025, Buchanan introduced two bills to promote preventive health: the Permanent Telehealth from Home Act (H.R. 1407) to remove obstructive geographic limitations to telehealth services and the Lung Cancer Screening and Prevention Act (H.R. 1406) to help ensure timely access to advanced screenings for lung cancer.
