Newsom files a civil rights complaint against Dr. Oz over allegations of hospice fraud

California Governor Gavin Newsom has demanded a civil rights investigation into Dr. Mehmet Oz, the administrator for the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, accusing him of discrimination against Armenians in a recent social media video. The complaint, filed Thursday, represents the latest confrontation between California and the Trump administration.

In the controversial video, Oz stood in front of an Armenian bakery in Los Angeles while claiming that approximately $3.5 billion in hospice and home care fraud has occurred in the city, asserting that “quite a bit of it” was orchestrated by what he called “the Russian Armenian mafia.” Oz’s role as CMS administrator gives him authority over certification of hospice providers who accept patients with government-subsidized health insurance.

Newsom’s office contended that Oz “spewed baseless and racially charged allegations” that could discourage participation in hospice and home care programs among Armenian communities. The governor’s complaint also noted that the video had already negatively impacted business at the Armenian bakery featured in the background.

“Mafia? There is no Armenian mafia going on here. We’re just hardworking business owners. I don’t understand why he’s mentioning just Armenians,” said Movses Bislamyan, whose family owns the bakery that appears in the video, in a statement to KABC-TV.

Oz responded to Newsom’s complaint on social media platform X, accusing the governor of attempting to deflect attention from Medicare fraud issues. “The problem isn’t isolated to California, though as far as our team can tell, it is the worst,” Oz stated, though he has provided limited details about the specific fraud allegations.

This controversy appears to be part of a broader Trump administration initiative to highlight fraud across the country. Similar efforts recently led to a controversial immigration crackdown targeting Somali-run day care centers in Minneapolis, which sparked widespread protests.

Newsom acknowledged that hospice care fraud exists in California but emphasized that his administration has been actively working to combat it for years. In 2021, he signed legislation halting new hospice licenses due to fraud concerns. The governor’s office reported that more than 280 hospice licenses have been revoked in recent years, with an additional 300 facilities currently under investigation.

“We’ve identified and cracked down on hospice fraud for years, taking real action to protect patients and taxpayers,” Newsom said.

Oz’s video depicts him visiting the Van Nuys neighborhood in Los Angeles, highlighting what he claims is a four-block radius containing 42 hospice facilities – a concentration he suggests indicates potential fraud. While filming, Oz specifically referenced the Armenian script on business signs as the camera panned to show Bislamyan’s bakery.

“You notice the lettering and language behind me is of that dialect,” Oz remarked in the video. Oz, whose parents emigrated to the United States from Turkey, also claimed California has not given sufficient attention to these issues.

The video has drawn sharp criticism from Armenian-American community leaders. Aram Hamparian, executive director of the Armenian National Committee of America, said Oz’s comments invoke “easy stereotypes” about the Armenian community, which has deep historical roots in California.

Los Angeles County is home to an estimated 200,000 people of Armenian descent. April is celebrated as Armenian History Month in the county, and areas like Little Armenia and the city of Glendale serve as significant cultural centers for the community.

Hamparian expressed concern about Oz’s Turkish heritage, noting that the Turkish government does not acknowledge the Armenian genocide – the killing and deportation of Armenians by Ottoman Empire forces in the early 1900s.

“Things have been dealt with at the state level, prosecutions have been made,” Hamparian said. “But Dr. Oz is taking this in an entirely destructive direction by scapegoating, by fear-mongering, by staging the theatric collective indictment of all Armenians.”

This dispute adds to the growing list of conflicts between Newsom, who is viewed as a potential Democratic presidential candidate for 2028, and the Republican Trump administration. Recent clashes have included disagreements over National Guard deployment in Los Angeles and federal efforts to block California’s pioneering 2035 ban on new gas-powered vehicles.