{"id":127269,"date":"2026-01-09T23:25:10","date_gmt":"2026-01-09T23:25:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/127269\/"},"modified":"2026-01-09T23:25:10","modified_gmt":"2026-01-09T23:25:10","slug":"billions-in-healthcare-fraud-discovered-in-california-dr-oz-claims","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/127269\/","title":{"rendered":"Billions in healthcare fraud discovered in California, Dr. Oz claims"},"content":{"rendered":"

Billions of dollars in alleged fraudulent healthcare spending<\/a> is being investigated in California, specifically probing foreign nationals operating illegal hospice facilities \u2014 officials announced Friday in a bombshell press conference.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe have witnessed a sevenfold increase in hospice in LA County, sevenfold. That doesn\u2019t happen naturally,\u201d Dr Mehmet Oz<\/a>, the administrator of the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services told The Post during at the press conference.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere is not seven times more deaths in LA County than there were five years ago. These are fraudsters, and these do tend to be foreign influences, either Russian and Armenian gangs, mafia, that are leading a lot of these efforts.\u201d<\/p>\n

Dr. Oz said fraudsters that tend to have foreign influences are leading a lot of the fraud efforts. London Entertainment for NY Post<\/p>\n

Fraudsters<\/a> who run these facilities are working with about \u201c100 bad doctors,\u201d who convince a patient they\u2019re dying to enroll them in hospice care, Dr Oz said, adding about 100,000 people have handed over their Medicare numbers.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe are major focused on this issue, and I think our suspicion, our belief, is that the fraud in California will magnify whatever\u2019s happening in Minnesota,<\/a>\u201d United States Attorney Bill Essayli said. \u201cWhat\u2019s happening in Minnesota pales in comparison to the level of fraud that we believe is occurring in California.\u201d<\/p>\n

Dr Oz said the Trump administration is also cracking down on taxpayer money being used to treat illegal immigrants for elective procedures.<\/p>\n

US Attorney Bill Essayli said that fraud discovered in Minnesota pales in comparison to what might come to light in California. LP Media<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019ve already identified about $1.3 billion of federal dollars spent to take care of illegal immigrants,\u201d Dr Oz said. \u201cThe state is giving that money back.\u201d<\/p>\n

Hundreds of billions of dollars flow through California\u2019s healthcare system, according to Essayli, who said $10 billion is for \u201cillegal immigrant health care.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cNo federal dollars is supposed to be used for that,\u201d said Essayli, who back in April launched a task force investigating corruption in the state, specifically focused on homelessness.<\/p>\n

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California Gov. Gavin Newsom denied the claims and said he has blocked billions in fraud. AP<\/p>\n

California Gov. Gavin Newsom pushed back on the on the widespread fraud claims, writing on X that the he has \u201cblocked over $125 BILLION in fraud, arrested criminal parasites leaching off of taxpayers, and protected taxpayers from the exact kind of scam artist Trump celebrates, excuses, and pardons.\u201d<\/p>\n

Dr Oz said he intends to work with Newsom and state leadership to create a \u201ccorrective action plan,\u201d but warned, there are steps that could be taken at the federal level if there is no cooperation.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey are aggressive steps, but this kind of a crisis requires aggressive treatment,\u201d Dr Oz told reporters.<\/p>\n

Earlier this week, the Department of Health and Human Services cut off $10 billion in social services and child care funding to a handful<\/a> of Democrat-led states, including California, over fears the benefits were fraudulently funneled to non-citizens.<\/p>\n

California Attorney General Rob Bonta, along with four other states \u2014 Colorado, Illinois, Minnesota and New York \u2014 filed a lawsuit Thursday against the Trump administration over its decision to freeze the funds, calling it \u201cunconstitutional and unlawful.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWith each passing day, his \u2018America First\u2019 rhetoric is exposed as nothing more than smoke and mirrors,\u201d Bonta said in a statement on Thursday,<\/p>\n

The fraud allegations came to light after the Trump administration announced recently it will appoint a new attorney general position to focus on tackling fraud.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Billions of dollars in alleged fraudulent healthcare spending is being investigated in California, specifically probing foreign nationals operating…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":127270,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[7,9,8,65807,3130,457,4226,13,64733,3586],"class_list":["post-127269","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-california","tag-california","tag-california-headlines","tag-california-news","tag-dr-oz","tag-fraud","tag-gavin-newsom","tag-minnesota","tag-politics","tag-tim-walz","tag-us-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/127269","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=127269"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/127269\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/127270"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=127269"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=127269"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=127269"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}