Menendez was ‘hostile’ to me: M’care big

Sen. Bob Menendez met with former Majority Leader Harry Reid and then-Secretary of Health and Human Services Kathleen Sebelius to advocate on behalf of a wealthy eye doctor pal over the doctor’s dispute with Medicare, a Medicare official testified Monday.

“[Menendez’s] tone was very angry, very hostile. I found I was being put on the defensive and it was a very angry exchange,” Jonathan Blum, of the Center for Medicare and Medicaid Services, told Newark federal court jurors of an August 2012 meeting in Reid’s Senate office.

Menendez lobbied for ophthalmologist Salomon Melgen, who is on trial alongside the New Jersey senator, claiming the Medicare billing policy was confusing and unfair.

Prosecutors have argued that Menendez used his power in the Senate to help get Melgen out of paying the $8.9 million bill he owed to Medicare after overcharging for an expensive eye medicine. In exchange, they allege, Menendez received gifts and pri- vate jet flights from Melgen.

Blum told the jury he thought Menendez wanted the CMS “to relieve, forgive, or lessen” Melgen’s bill.

He recounted at the end of the meeting Menendez saying, “He was not going to let the issue rest and he was going to use the authority he had as a member of the Finance Committee to continue pressing the issue,” and Menendez then leaving without shaking Blum’s hand.

Blum was surprised that Menendez advocated for a doctor who wasn’t even a constituent, noting that normally senators lobbied for policies that effect “many stakeholders” and not just one.