Trump Administration Enlists Dr. Oz in Five-State Medicaid Fraud Crackdown

Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) Administrator Dr. Mehmet Oz is intensifying efforts to combat healthcare fraud across the United States, with special focus on five states where significant concerns have emerged.

“We’ve written letters to Minnesota, California, a letter to Florida because we’re worried about the durable medical equipment fraud, New York, Maine, and there are more coming,” Oz told Fox News Digital in a recent interview. He emphasized that while these states are receiving immediate attention, his concerns extend to all 50 states.

The crackdown comes in the wake of Minnesota’s $250 million “Feeding Our Future” scheme, which has prompted CMS to increase pressure on states to strengthen their anti-fraud enforcement mechanisms. The agency is conducting comprehensive reviews of various programs, including Medicaid and hospice services, which have revealed troubling evidence of foreign influence in fraud operations.

“We know the Cuban government seems to be implicated in some issues in South Florida, where you have twice as many durable medical equipment suppliers selling wheelchairs and knee braces than McDonald’s,” Oz stated, highlighting the unusual concentration of suppliers in certain regions.

The anti-fraud initiative, led by Vice President JD Vance, implemented a nationwide moratorium in February targeting durable medical equipment, prosthetics, orthotics, and supplies (DMEPOS) suppliers. A spokesperson for Vice President Vance affirmed their commitment, stating that “The task force is committed to ensuring that American tax dollars are used for the benefit of the American people.”

Oz expressed particular concern about foreign involvement in these schemes. “We have evidence that foreign nationals certainly are involved in a lot of this fraud. There’s a Russian mafia presence in Los Angeles. There’s Chinese mafia presence, for example, in Flushing Queens [New York],” he said.

One of the most striking actions taken under this initiative was the suspension of 400 hospice facilities in Los Angeles after officials identified an unusually high concentration of providers in the area. These hospice programs, designed for patients in the final six months of life, raised suspicions when they reported extraordinarily high survival rates.

“We also began to notice that there were some folks who were probably not honorable doctors who were designated to supervise patients in multiple hospices,” Oz explained. “A lot of hospitals had foreigners that owned them, or they were able to cheat by keeping the numbers of their membership low enough that they don’t have to actually report their outcomes.”

According to Oz, California’s state auditor had warned Governor Gavin Newsom about evidence of hospice fraud back in 2022. “The fact that we can suspend more than 400 hospices from getting paid in just a few weeks highlights the reality that no one was watching the till for the last several years,” Oz remarked.

A spokesperson for Governor Newsom previously told the New York Post that California had taken action in 2021 by implementing a moratorium on new hospice licenses to prevent bad actors from entering the system while strengthening oversight of existing providers.

In April, Oz issued a directive to all 50 governors ordering them to identify and remove noncompliant Medicaid providers. The directive gave state leaders 10 business days to commit to conducting a swift “revalidation” of high-risk Medicaid providers and provide a proposed timetable, along with a separate 30-day deadline for developing a broader provider-revalidation strategy.

“We can audit states that don’t want to comply with the revalidation request,” Oz warned, explaining the process: “Let’s revalidate, which means double check that everyone is providing services within Medicaid, especially for these high-risk services where these are the things your family would normally do for you.”

The CMS Administrator cited examples of potentially fraudulent activities, including autism support services, non-emergency medical transportation, and basic assistance like grocery delivery that may fall outside Medicaid’s intended scope.

Federal officials estimate that healthcare fraud costs American taxpayers billions of dollars annually. “This is an important issue for Americans to recognize because the states run Medicaid, but the federal taxpayer foots the bill,” Oz concluded, emphasizing the national significance of the crackdown.