{"id":197395,"date":"2026-03-19T04:52:10","date_gmt":"2026-03-19T04:52:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/197395\/"},"modified":"2026-03-19T04:52:10","modified_gmt":"2026-03-19T04:52:10","slug":"florida-targeted-in-trump-administration-medicaid-fraud-crackdown-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/197395\/","title":{"rendered":"Florida targeted in Trump administration Medicaid fraud crackdown"},"content":{"rendered":"

PALM BEACH COUNTY, Fla. (CBS12) \u2014 Florida is now at the epicenter of a federal crackdown by the Trump<\/a> administration on Medicaid and Medicare fraud.<\/p>\n

Dr. Mehmet Oz<\/a>, the administrator for the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS), expressed his shock at the extent of fraud in Florida, calling it \u201cout of control.\u201d <\/p>\n

In a recent post on social media platform X<\/a>, Dr. Oz said, \u201cWe\u2019ve only just begun to scratch the surface of fraud in our health care system. What I saw on the ground in Florida around durable medical equipment fraud was horrifying. The scale is out of control, and addressing this will require focused action from state leaders.\u201d<\/p>\n

Dr. Oz highlighted that fraud in government health programs is complex and widespread, and shared some cases:<\/p>\n

In June 2025, the CEO of a healthcare software company was found guilty of a scheme that created fraudulent physician orders, leading to over $1 billion in false Medicare claims.In January 2026, two healthcare executives were convicted of a $34 million Medicare Advantage fraud scheme, using deceptive tactics to push elderly beneficiaries into accepting unnecessary medical equipment.Also in January 2026, a lab owner admitted guilt in a $52 million Medicare fraud case involving unnecessary genetic tests ordered through illegal kickbacks.In a separate incident, two individuals were arrested in Central Florida for fraudulently billing Medicaid for thousands of non-existent transportation trips, stealing over $65,000 from taxpayers.<\/p>\n

See also: Party\u2019s Over: K-9 sniffs out massive drug stash near Okeechobee Music Festival<\/a><\/p>\n

Dr. Oz stated that these cases represent just a fraction of the fraud that has been uncovered, highlighting a deeper issue of exploitation affecting vulnerable populations, including seniors and low-income Americans.<\/p>\n

Additionally, Dr. Oz claimed that for years, Florida has been recognized as a hotspot for healthcare fraud. <\/p>\n

In response, Jason Weida, Chief of Staff to Florida Governor Ron DeSantis, assured that the state is actively collaborating with Dr. Oz and CMS to tackle the problem. \u201cWe have zero tolerance for waste, fraud, and abuse,\u201d Weida stated on X. \u201cWe will aggressively deploy every resource necessary to root it out at any level in our state. Stay tuned.\u201d<\/p>\n

Florida’s Attorney General James Uthmeier <\/a>also expressed his support for the investigations, sharing recent arrests made by the Medicaid Fraud Control Unit. \u201cThe Medicaid system is overwhelmed with fraud and abuse, and we look forward to working with Dr. Oz on these issues!\u201d he said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"PALM BEACH COUNTY, Fla. (CBS12) \u2014 Florida is now at the epicenter of a federal crackdown by the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":197265,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[28,30,29],"class_list":["post-197395","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-florida","tag-florida","tag-florida-headlines","tag-florida-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/197395","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=197395"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/197395\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/197265"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=197395"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=197395"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=197395"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}