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Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) Administrator Dr. Mehmet Oz is zeroing in on five states as the Trump administration escalates its crackdown on fraud, waste, and abuse, he told Fox News Digital.
“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 Zoom interview, adding that his concern expands to all 50 states, as well.
Oz has escalated federal pressure on states to tighten anti-fraud enforcement following Minnesota’s $250 million “Feeding Our Future” scheme. CMS is leaving no stone unturned, he said, looking at programs such as Medicaid and hospices also revealing foreign influence in the fraud scheme.
READ: DR. OZ PUTS ALL 50 GOVERNORS ON NOTICE OVER BILLIONS LOST TO MEDICAID FRAUD
“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,” said Oz.
The anti-fraud task force, led by Vice President JD Vance, announced in February that durable medical equipment, prosthetics, orthotics, and supplies (DMEPOS) suppliers will be targeted through a nationwide moratorium.
“The Vice President’s task force continues to work closely with Dr. Oz and CMS to track down and root out fraud,” said a Vance spokesperson to Fox News Digital. “The task force is committed to ensuring that American tax dollars are used for the benefit of the American people, and will continue to successfully do exactly that.”
Oz said that he suspects a lot of foreign governments are involved in the fraud schemes taking place across the country targeting specific areas.
“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,]” Oz said.
MINNESOTA ‘ON THE CLOCK’ AS HHS THREATENS PENALTIES OVER CHILDCARE FRAUD SCANDAL
Four hundred hospices in Los Angeles were suspended after officials flagged an unusually high concentration of providers in the area.
The programs, designed for people in the final six months of their life, had very high survival rates – where in some cases everyone survived.
“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,” said Oz. “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.”
Oz said the auditor of California informed Gov. Gavin Newsom of hospice fraud evidence in 2022.
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“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,” said Oz.
Fox News Digital reached out to Newsom’s office for additional comment.
“In 2021, Governor Gavin Newsom signed legislation placing a moratorium on new hospice licenses – a policy that remains in effect today, preventing bad actors from entering the system while strengthening oversight of existing providers,” a spokesperson for Newsom previously told the New York Post of hospice fraud in the state.
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Oz recently put all 50 states on notice ordering governors to identify and remove noncompliant Medicaid providers.
Oz gave governors and state Medicaid leaders 10 business days in April to tell CMS whether they will commit to conducting a swift “revalidation” of high-risk Medicaid providers and provide a proposed timetable, alongside a separate 30-day deadline for a broader provider-revalidation strategy, escalating federal pressure on states to tighten anti-fraud enforcement.
“We can audit states that don’t want to comply with the revalidation request,” said Oz.
“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,” he said.
Oz pointed to examples of autism babysitters, non-emergency transport to clinics, and services such as carrying and delivering groceries that may fall outside of Medicaid scope, possibly revealing fraud.
“Like what do these people actually have as credentials to allow them to be able to this? And so we asked this question of all the states and all 50 now are charged within 10 days of telling us whether they want to work with us,” he said.
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Officials suspect the fraud costs Americans billions of dollars each year.
“This is an important issue for Americans to recognize because the states run Medicaid, but the federal taxpayer foots the bill,” said Oz.
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