{"id":411765,"date":"2026-05-04T20:05:14","date_gmt":"2026-05-04T20:05:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/411765\/"},"modified":"2026-05-04T20:05:14","modified_gmt":"2026-05-04T20:05:14","slug":"how-dr-oz-became-trumps-medicare-and-medicaid-fraud-fighter","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/411765\/","title":{"rendered":"How Dr. Oz became Trump\u2019s Medicare and Medicaid fraud fighter"},"content":{"rendered":"

\n Dr. Mehmet Oz built his reputation as \u201cAmerica\u2019s Doctor\u201d by dispensing easy-to-follow medical advice on TV.\n <\/p>\n

\n Now, as a top health official<\/a> in the Trump administration, he\u2019s harnessing his charisma and TV skills to send a different message: that Medicare and Medicaid are riddled with fraud, adding to the cost of the massive public healthcare programs.\n <\/p>\n

\n With a camera crew still in tow, he\u2019s going on-site in multiple, mostly Democratic-led, states to film video after video calling out improper and questionable spending. He\u2019s also filmed himself tagging along with armed federal agents raiding allegedly fraudulent healthcare providers.\n <\/p>\n

\n The crusade has not only endeared Oz to Donald Trump but also made him a top lieutenant in the president\u2019s quest to root out wasteful spending in federal social programs.\n <\/p>\n

\n The highly produced videos, viewed millions of times on social media, are a big part of messaging aimed at convincing voters that Trump is fulfilling his campaign promise to address Americans\u2019 healthcare costs<\/a>.\n <\/p>\n

\n Best known for frequent \u201cOprah\u201d appearances that parlayed into the long-running \u201cThe Dr. Oz Show,\u201d he was tapped by Trump last year to be administrator of the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, or CMS.\n <\/p>\n

\"Mehmetthe results of a physical check-up Trump underwent last week. The two talked during a taping of “The Dr. Oz Show” in New York on Wednesday, September 14.” class=”image_large__dam-img image_large__dam-img–loading” onload=’this.classList.remove(‘image_large__dam-img–loading’)’ onerror=”imageLoadError(this)” height=”1125″ width=”2000″ loading=’lazy’\/><\/p>\n

\n Since then, Oz has built a reputation as a steady voice in the Trump administration\u2019s sprawling health apparatus, which has undergone dramatic upheaval with downsizing and policy changes, including some that have been questioned by mainstream medicine. Oz also has taken a leading role in negotiating lower drug prices with more than a dozen manufacturers.\n <\/p>\n

\n But experts have questioned Oz\u2019s claims that there are many billions of dollars in fraudulent spending to slash in public health insurance programs, many of which cover the most vulnerable Americans. They warn the effort may be aimed at cutting federal spending even when it\u2019s not warranted, while undermining a critical program.\n <\/p>\n

\n \u201cThere is fraud against Medicaid, and we need to get on it. But I don\u2019t believe it\u2019s \u2018rampant.\u2019 I don\u2019t believe it\u2019s \u2018staggering,\u2019 and I don\u2019t think there\u2019s any evidence for that,\u201d said Andy Schneider, a research professor at Georgetown University and former CMS senior adviser during the Obama administration. \u201cBut that\u2019s the kind of rhetoric that Dr. Oz and other people in the administration are using, and I don\u2019t think it\u2019s helpful.\u201d\n <\/p>\n

\n Oz argues that his efforts are aimed at strengthening Medicare and Medicaid.\n <\/p>\n

\n \u201cCMS is focused on protecting patients, safeguarding taxpayer dollars, and making sure these programs are there for the people they were designed to serve,\u201d he told CNN in a statement.\n <\/p>\n

\n Not long after Trump won the presidency in 2024, some of his top allies in the healthcare world convened at Oz\u2019s mansion in Palm Beach, Florida, where they sat around a dinner table discussing how they were going to fix healthcare.\n <\/p>\n

\n Oz, now-Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., a cohort of \u201cMake America Healthy Again\u201d supporters, and a handful of officials from the first Trump administration cycled through the beachfront mansion, discussing goals like how to tackle perceived corruption across the healthcare system.\n <\/p>\n

\n It was a sort of \u201chealthcare Hyannis Port,\u201d according to Michael Caputo, a former health official from the first Trump administration, who was in attendance.\n <\/p>\n

\n Current and former Trump officials who spoke to CNN described a cost-cutting, fraud-finding crusade that they believe will resonate with voters ahead of the midterm elections \u2014 and Oz\u2019s efforts are being seen in a positively within the administration. He is a central player on Vice President JD Vance\u2019s anti-fraud task force.\n <\/p>\n

\n There is a sense that \u201cif things are going to get done, they\u2019re likely going to get done through CMS,\u201d said one former official. \u201cAt CMS, you\u2019ve got Oz in a place, a clear chief of staff, a strategy that people can understand and get behind.\u201d\n <\/p>\n

\"President<\/p>\n

\n Speaking in The Villages, a large retirement community in Florida, on Friday, Trump praised his administrator. \u201cWe have a man here who knows more about Medicaid, Medicare, medical crap than any human being,\u201d he said.\n <\/p>\n

\n And Oz has taken on the fraud-fighting mantle with gusto.\n <\/p>\n

\n \u201cHealthcare fraud is real, documented, and devastating,\u201d he said in the statement to CNN. \u201cWhen bad actors exploit the system, they\u2019re not just wasting taxpayer dollars, they\u2019re putting patients at risk and taking resources away from people who truly need care.\u201d\n <\/p>\n

\n Minutes after being sworn in, he was already railing against alleged criminals stealing from vulnerable Americans and from taxpayers in healthcare programs.\n <\/p>\n

\n \u201cWe have created a war room at CMS to go after, to catch the fraud in real time before the money leaves the federal coffers,\u201d he said, addressing Trump.\n <\/p>\n

\n Oz estimates that fraud, waste and abuse in Medicare, Medicaid, the Affordable Care Act and the Children\u2019s Health Insurance Program total $100 billion. His efforts largely focus on areas that have seen large increases in billing or in providers participating in the programs.\n <\/p>\n

\n At the heart of his anti-fraud battle are social media videos and letters to governors with demands for information about their Medicaid programs. The missives take an adversarial tone, blaming state leaders for not doing enough, requiring responses within weeks and threatening to act.\n <\/p>\n

\n In April, he announced that CMS has asked all 50 states to submit plans on how they will revalidate Medicaid providers in areas deemed high risk. States will have 30 days to comply, making sure that the providers are legitimate, deliver the services they are being paid for and do it the right way.\n <\/p>\n

\n In one of his initial actions earlier this year, Oz announced CMS would temporarily withhold $259 million<\/a> in federal matching funds for Minnesota until the state can prove that its Medicaid providers weren\u2019t fraudulent and that some individuals served have the proper immigration status. Last week, he followed up by temporarily withholding another $91 billion, saying on X that \u201cwe cannot and will not pay bad bills so we\u2019re asking for more information from Minnesota to verify these bills.\u201d\n <\/p>\n

\n Other high-profile targets have included social adult daycare and home-care programs funded by Medicaid in New York and California\u2019s hospice and home-care services providers.\n <\/p>\n

\n Oz has also questioned payments for autism services for children in Maine, and, in the only red state on his public shaming list, blasted fraud committed by medical equipment providers in South Florida.\n <\/p>\n

\n In one action-packed video<\/a> last month, Oz narrates a SWAT team raid against a California couple charged by the Justice Department with defrauding Medicare by billing for services they did not provide.\n <\/p>\n

\n \u201cWe had a bunch of hospice operators that have been getting away with fraud and corruption for a long time,\u201d Oz says as he strides toward the raid team. \u201cThat stops today.\u201d\n <\/p>\n

\n The couple seized in the video were two of seven medical practitioners and hospice operators arrested or charged with Medicaid fraud in the enforcement action.\n <\/p>\n

Results. pic.twitter.com\/q6iHAsEx2p<\/a><\/p>\n

\u2014 DrOzCMS (@DrOzCMS) April 17, 2026<\/a><\/p>\n

\n Oz has also traveled around the country \u2014 including to Minneapolis, Southern California, New York City, Florida and Nevada \u2014 to take viewers to sites where he alleges fraud is occurring.\n <\/p>\n

\n In another video<\/a>, filmed in South Florida, which he calls \u201cthe hotbed of durable medical equipment supplier fraud,\u201d Oz claims there are more suppliers than McDonald\u2019s in the area. One alleged perpetrator tried to flee on a Jet Ski with several hundred thousand dollars in a backpack, he says, as the video shows a man with a backpack on a Jet Ski.\n <\/p>\n

\n These videos are among the well over a dozen that Oz has posted to his social media accounts this year. He has also appeared on numerous news shows and podcasts discussing the issue.\n <\/p>\n

\n The agency said it is intensifying its \u201cnationwide, data-driven effort to identify and address potential fraud across Medicare and Medicaid.\u201d\n <\/p>\n

\n \u201cThe agency follows the data and does not predetermine enforcement targets; instead, it focuses attention where billing patterns, program vulnerabilities, or law enforcement findings indicate elevated risk,\u201d it said in a statement to CNN.\n <\/p>\n

Criticism and praise<\/p>\n

\n To be sure, fraud has long existed in Medicare and Medicaid, primarily perpetrated by providers, not enrollees \u2014 whom GOP lawmakers have often targeted. But there\u2019s no data available on the total amount of money lost to fraud in the two programs, and Oz\u2019s claims have been found to be inaccurate at least once.\n <\/p>\n

\n Prosecutions give an inkling of the extent of the problem. Medicaid Fraud Control Units, which operate in all states, recovered $1.2 billion in criminal fraud convictions in fiscal year 2025, according to the Health and Human Services Office of Inspector General. (Total Medicaid spending that year was $1 trillion.)\n <\/p>\n

\n The effort to use data to find billing patterns that could be indicative of fraud predates the Trump administration. CMS estimates that it stopped $11.9 billion in potentially fraudulent Medicare payments between fiscal years 2022 and 2024, according to a recent report from the Government Accountability Office. Under President Joe Biden, some action was taken \u2014 for example Medicare officials told the accountability office that the data helped them halt more than $4 billion in payments for supplies that were billed but never delivered.\n <\/p>\n

\n Prosecutions for healthcare fraud are common. Last year, the Justice Department announced it had charged 324 defendants for their alleged participation in more than $14.6 billion in fraud schemes, more than double the previous record.\n <\/p>\n

\n But Oz\u2019s tactics have met with mixed reviews.\n <\/p>\n

\n Democratic governors and left-leaning policy experts say he is deliberately targeting blue states in a political ploy and are challenging his claims.\n <\/p>\n

\n For example, one of Oz\u2019s eye-popping accusations was that more than 5 million Medicaid beneficiaries in New York \u2014 or three-quarters of the total number enrolled \u2014 received personal care services during part of 2025.\n <\/p>\n

\n Michael Kinnucan, health policy director at the progressive Fiscal Policy Institute in New York, looked closely at the data and determined that CMS likely added up all the enrollees who receive this service month after month, rather than counting individuals only once.\n <\/p>\n

\n The error shows that Oz has a weak grasp of the programs he\u2019s accusing of fraud, Kinnucan told CNN.\n <\/p>\n

\n \u201cThe effort here is not to fight fraud or force New York to do a better job of fighting fraud,\u201d he said. \u201cThey want to cut federal spending.\u201d\n <\/p>\n

\n More than a month later, Oz and CMS acknowledged the mistake, saying that the actual number was about 450,000 beneficiaries.\n <\/p>\n

\n However, Oz\u2019s claims of rampant fraud in social adult daycare programs in New York \u2014 including paying seniors to say they are attending but not actually providing any services \u2014 are spot on, said Derek Adams, a partner at Potomac Law Group. He is happy that Oz is raising awareness of the issue, which hurts legitimate providers like his clients.\n <\/p>\n

\n \u201cThe government needs to do more on the issue,\u201d Adams said. \u201cThere have been far, far too few actions.\u201d\n <\/p>\n

\n In California, the hospice industry has welcomed Oz\u2019s efforts, saying more needs to be done. In a 2022 report on hospice agencies, the state\u2019s auditor found that \u201cthe State\u2019s weak controls have created the opportunity for large-scale fraud and abuse\u201d and highlighted many of the same concerns as Oz.\n <\/p>\n

\n The state stopped issuing new licenses to hospice providers that year, but some of the existing ones are still committing fraud, said Sheila Clark, CEO of the California Hospice and Palliative Care Association.\n <\/p>\n

\n Last year, Clark provided information on potential fraud to CMS officials, whom she described as very inquisitive and thoughtful. They worked quickly to remove from hospice care Medicare beneficiaries who were fraudulently enrolled \u2014 allowing them to regain their regular Medicare coverage.\n <\/p>\n

\n \u201cTheir enforcement actions have got teeth, and they are having real impact,\u201d she said.\n <\/p>\n

\n CMS has shut down federal funding for 450 hospices and home healthcare agencies in California, Oz said at Politico\u2019s Health Care Summit in April.\n <\/p>\n

\n Oz\u2019s actions reflect what CMS should be doing to protect Medicare and Medicaid and ensure federal funds are being spent appropriately, said Brian Blase, head of the conservative Paragon Institute.\n <\/p>\n

\n \u201cWhat he\u2019s doing is making it clear the problems within some of these programs and that we need to fix them,\u201d said Blase, who worked as a health policy adviser in Trump\u2019s first term.\n <\/p>\n

\n Still, some experts question whether Oz\u2019s methods are the best way to combat fraud, saying the federal government should partner with states rather than bully them and disrupt or threaten their federal matching funds. That\u2019s not the way to make the program work better, said Schneider of Georgetown University.\n <\/p>\n

\n Schneider, who advised on Medicaid integrity issues at CMS, argues the focus on fraud is a way for the Trump administration to shift the Americans\u2019 attention away from the sweeping healthcare cuts Republicans enacted last year.\n <\/p>\n

\n \u201cInvoking fraud is a way to degrade [Medicaid\u2019s] reputation,\u201d he said. \u201cThis is part of a longer-term strategy to weaken popular support for the program.\u201d\n <\/p>\n

\n Oz has contended that he loves Medicaid and wants to make sure that people who need health services can access them.\n <\/p>\n

\n \u201cIf you love something, you protect it,\u201d he said at Politico\u2019s summit.\n <\/p>\n

\n Editor\u2019s note: A previous version of this story misattributed a quote, which has been removed. An image location labels has been updated.\n <\/p>\n