For many of final 12 months, Calley Means, a high aide to Well being Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., was advising on adjustments to the American well being system whereas operating a quickly rising wellness firm poised to learn from Trump administration well being insurance policies.

Information launched to The New York Occasions by an ethics workplace on the Division of Well being and Human Companies present that Mr. Means held between $25 million and $50 million in inventory within the firm, Truemed, via November, as he continued to function its president. For months, Mr. Means has ignored questions from Democrats in Congress about his funds, together with the extent of his stake in Truemed, and the way they associated to federal coverage.

Truemed helps folks purchase merchandise, together with $10,000 saunas and radiation-blocking underwear, with well being financial savings accounts that aren’t topic to federal revenue tax. President Trump broadened the pool of people that might use such accounts final summer season when he signed a wide-ranging regulation permitting an estimated 10 million extra People to open well being financial savings accounts.

The information The Occasions obtained cowl a interval when Mr. Means labored as a particular authorities worker. In November he turned a everlasting full-time worker and, he stated, divested and resigned from Truemed.

“After I was requested to function an S.G.E., I labored to assist wins like eradicating meals dyes and flipping the meals pyramid — by no means touching H.S.A. coverage,” Mr. Means stated in an announcement. “When requested to affix full time, I absolutely divested shares from the thriving firm and nonprofit I constructed to incentivize more healthy meals.”

He stated that some folks thought he was “loopy” to go away the thriving firm he based, however that “the choice to assist the Trump administration’s efforts to reverse childhood power illness is one of the best skilled determination of my life and I’ve no regrets.”

Kush Desai, a White Home spokesman, stated, “Calley Means complies with all ethics and battle of curiosity necessities” and performs “no function” in coverage affecting well being financial savings accounts. Andrew Nixon, a Well being Division spokesman, stated Mr. Means complied “with all relevant ethics legal guidelines and laws.”

“Mr. Means has been a useful asset to Secretary Kennedy and the Trump administration, advancing key priorities to enhance well being outcomes whereas strengthening diet and public well being coverage,” Mr. Nixon stated in an announcement.

In his particular authorities worker function, Mr. Means was permitted to maintain his stake in Truemed below ethics guidelines that additionally allowed him to bypass public reporting obligations however barred him from being concerned in policymaking associated to his monetary pursuits. He was solely required to file monetary disclosures when he joined the Well being and Human Companies Division as a full-time worker in November.

Having duties as an officer and high shareholder at a well being firm whereas engaged on federal well being coverage is an issue, stated Anthony Alfieri, a professor of regulation, public well being sciences and ethics on the College of Miami.

“Twin roles create divided loyalties and create an look of a form of double recreation for private pursuits and public coverage,” he stated. “And that’s as troubling for People, as a result of it creates a way of mistrust and a way that public officers are advancing their very own pursuits over the pursuits of strange People.”

Mr. Trump has relied closely upon on particular authorities staff in his second time period, including Elon Musk and the enterprise capitalist David Sacks, who each had affect over areas referring to their enterprise pursuits. Such employees are anticipated to carry out “necessary, however restricted, companies to the federal government” and work for now not than 130 days. Lots of them have historically served extra slender roles as private-sector specialists on advisory boards.

Within the Trump administration, these particular authorities staff have been given broad mandates to juggle the work of operating companies whereas altering insurance policies that would have an effect on their ventures.

Mr. Means bought his stake in Truemed late in 2025 to the enterprise capital companies Andreessen Horowitz, which invests in a variety of well being and wellness corporations, and Bessemer Enterprise Companions, in response to an individual aware of the transaction. Such gross sales are usually not uncommon amongst enterprise house owners who divest once they go into authorities, stated Richard Painter, a former White Home ethics lawyer below President George W. Bush and a professor on the College of Minnesota.

Truemed announced late last year that it had raised $34 million in enterprise capital funds and had tripled its year-over-year income development for the earlier two years. The fund-raising was accomplished earlier than Mr. Trump’s inauguration, a Truemed spokesman stated.

The monetary disclosures additionally present that Mr. Means labored till November on the board of Finish Persistent Illness, a nonprofit that employed a lobbyist late final 12 months to advertise the HOPE Act, a invoice that additionally proposed expanding access to tax-advantaged savings accounts for medical bills. Mr. Means stated that he had no information of the lobbying and that it occurred after he resigned.

Truemed operates by enlisting on-line medical suppliers to provide prospects with so-called letters of medical necessity that attest to their want for merchandise like dietary supplements, health gadgets and cold-plunge swimming pools to forestall or deal with medical circumstances. With these letters, the corporate tells folks, they’ll use well being financial savings or versatile spending accounts to purchase the objects.

The accounts enable folks to put aside a restricted portion of their revenue, with out paying federal revenue tax, for certified medical bills.

However the letters facilitated by Truemed generally misapplied medical analysis and contained incorrect or extraneous info, The Occasions found final 12 months. The Inside Income Service warned in 2024 that “normal well being and wellness” purchases have been “not thought of medical bills below the tax regulation.”

Truemed partnered last year with a meat company to assist folks purchase merchandise like ground beef and hot dogs with cash from tax-favored accounts.

Mr. Means’s monetary disclosure information, which he signed in September, additionally listing a $40,000 talking payment to be paid for showing subsequent month at Meatstock, a conference in Tennessee sponsored partially by ranchers and meat distributors. Mr. Means stated this month that he didn’t and doesn’t plan to simply accept the payment.

New dietary tips launched earlier this 12 months by the Trump administration put crimson meat close to the highest of the meals pyramid. Whereas particular authorities staff are allowed to simply accept revenue exterior of presidency service, Mr. Painter stated meat-related revenue would have created an look of impropriety for a particular worker or high adviser.

After Mr. Means divested from Truemed late final 12 months, he was now not certain by ethics guidelines walling him off from insurance policies that would enrich the corporate.

In January, well being financial savings accounts emerged as a centerpiece of President Trump’s “Nice Healthcare Plan.” In an Oval Office address, Mr. Trump stated his administration wished to restrict subsidies for individuals who purchase insurance coverage via the Inexpensive Care Act, furthering a coverage that in his second time period has left many with crippling premium increases. He referred to as on Congress to bolster well being financial savings accounts as a substitute.

“I wish to finish this flagrant rip-off and put extra cash straight into the well being care financial savings account in your title,” Mr. Trump said on the time, “and also you exit and purchase your personal well being care.”

The 12 months earlier than, Mr. Trump’s sweeping home coverage invoice expanded eligibility for well being financial savings accounts by permitting enrollees in sure Inexpensive Care Act protection plans to qualify.

Republicans have embraced the idea of well being financial savings accounts for many years, arguing that they’d give shoppers extra energy and produce stronger market forces to the nation’s well being system.

However many researchers argue that they overwhelmingly profit prosperous folks, who’ve extra to realize from diverting cash into tax-privileged accounts and extra money to contribute.

“Well being financial savings accounts are successfully a tax shelter for the rich,” stated Nicole Rapfogel, a senior coverage analyst on the left-leaning Heart on Price range and Coverage Priorities.

In a collection of podcast appearances, Mr. Means argued in favor of the accounts within the lead-up to Mr. Trump’s election in 2024. He called for steering medical spending away from federal well being care packages and into the kind of tax-favored accounts that allow discounted purchases via Truemed.

“There may very well be really over a trillion {dollars} in HSAs if folks max out their contributions,” Mr. Means stated on the podcast of the wellness influencer Dr. Mark Hyman in January 2024, including: “So we should always have common H.S.A.s, limitless caps.”