CMS expands fraud crackdown to all 50 state Medicaid programs

Dr. Mehmet Oz, the administrator of the federal Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services, said Tuesday that the Trump administration will require every state within 30 days to turn in a plan to revalidate the health care providers that participate in their Medicaid programs (Source: “In Medicaid fraud crackdown, feds now looking to audit all 50 states,” Stateline, April 21).
 
The Trump administration has pledged to root out what it calls rampant fraud in state Medicaid programs. But thus far, it has focused almost exclusively on Democratic-led states, even though fraud involving government benefits isn’t any more prevalent in Democratic-led states than in Republican-led ones, according to federal data.
 
Oz said Tuesday that the administration will expand its Medicaid anti-fraud effort to all 50 states.
 
“We’re asking the states to own that problem… red and blue, all of them,” Oz said during a health care summit hosted by Politico. “If you don’t take it seriously, it indicates to us that we might have to take the audits… more aggressively,” he added.