Outliers: Treadgate, redux

Note to HHS staff: Having two treadmill desks is sufficient to get you in congressional hot water.

It turns out that the CMS' Center for Medicare and Medicaid Innovation has a grand total of two treadmill desks, the agency confirmed last week. That number was sufficient to feature prominently in a senior Republican senator's criticisms of the new innovation office as a squanderer of taxpayer funds, during a March 20 hearing. We dubbed it Treadgate in last week's Outliers column.

The issue prompted Sen. Orrin Hatch (R-Utah) to blast the new agency for failing to produce required health policy recommendations while lavishing high salaries and $1,000 treadmill desks on its staff.

A CMS spokesman did not confirm the desks' price but said the Innovation Center office space, including the treadmill desks, came in under budget. And the strenuous workstations, hopefully, have other benefits. “The treadmill desks are designed to promote wellness and healthy living, which is one strategy to reducing employee health insurance expenditures,” he said.