![\"A](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/mehmet-oz-administrator-centers-for-medicare-and-medicaid-services-1200x800.jpg\")
Administrator for the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services Dr. Mehmet Oz speaks during a news conference on efforts to combat fraud, in the Old Eisenhower Executive Office Building on the White House campus Wednesday, Feb. 25, 2026, in Washington. (AP Photo\/Tom Brenner)<\/p>\n
The federal Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services is demanding that Vermont renew its Medicaid care providers\u2019 eligibility as part of the Trump administration\u2019s effort to weed out fraud, waste and abuse, according to letters that Vermont Medicaid<\/a> and the governor\u2019s office<\/a> received Thursday.<\/p>\n CMS Administrator Mehmet Oz asked all 50 states<\/a> to give the federal department their two-year plans, within 30 days of the letters\u2019 receipt, for revalidating Medicaid providers. He specifically requests that states undertake a \u201cswift\u201d revalidation of providers at high risk of committing fraud and submit a plan for doing so within 10 days.\u00a0The governor\u2019s office received a letter specifically addressing this \u201chigh-risk\u201d revalidation.<\/p>\n The nationwide requests come on the heels of a March congressional letter targeting Vermont <\/a>and nine other states and demanding information to identify Medicaid vulnerabilities to fraud, waste and abuse.<\/p>\n CMS requires healthcare providers who receive Medicaid funds to renew their enrollment periodically \u2014\u00a0typically every five years, though medical suppliers revalidate status every three years, according to a federal website.<\/a><\/p>\n In his letter, Oz wrote that revalidation can help identify where providers no longer meet criteria for Medicaid enrollment \u2014 such as professional credentials \u2014 but it is \u201cjust one component of a broader program\u2010integrity framework.\u201d He noted that screening alone may not identify every instance of fraud, especially in cases where providers are indeed qualified to administer services.<\/p>\n A representative from Vermont\u2019s Agency of Human Services said Monday the state was still assessing CMS\u2019 request and working on its response. The agency was unable to answer additional questions Monday.<\/p>\n \u201cThe State of Vermont takes fraud, waste and abuse seriously,\u201d wrote Ted Fisher, the communications director for the Agency of Human Services. \u201cWe are committed to administering a high-quality Medicaid program that supports the health of Vermonters and responsibly stewards taxpayer resources.\u201d<\/p>\n Heightened attention to Medicaid fraud came after federal health officials accused Minnesota of paying out nearly $243.8 million in Medicaid dollars to potentially fraudulent providers in 2025.<\/p>\n READ MORE<\/p>\n \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t Ongoing federal concerns about potential fraud has already caused some changes in Vermont Medicaid. In December,<\/a> the state program that administers Medicaid changed how it pays for an autism therapy called applied behavioral analysis, in an effort to avoid federal inquiries. The move has left many providers of the therapy and parents of those with autism worried<\/a> about the ability to access these services.<\/p>\n The Vermont attorney general\u2019s Medicaid Fraud and Residential Abuse Unit has pursued a number of fraud cases. For instance, the office reached a $200,000 settlement<\/a> with the Burlington mental health care provider Eden Valley in December, for submitting falsified records on Medicaid claims<\/a>. In April 2025, a different investigation by the attorney general\u2019s Medicaid fraud unit found<\/a> that a Lamoille County couple had submitted false timesheets, for thousands of dollars of Medicaid claims.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Administrator for the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services Dr. Mehmet Oz speaks during a news conference on…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":622064,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[59],"tags":[104116,97,252,253,1341,214517,1342,10621,230796],"class_list":["post-622063","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-health-care","tag-centers-for-medicare-medicaid-services","tag-health","tag-health-care","tag-healthcare","tag-medicaid","tag-medicaid-fraud","tag-medicare","tag-trending-stories","tag-vermont-medicaid"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/622063","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=622063"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/622063\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/622064"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=622063"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=622063"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=622063"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t![\"Vermont](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/jill-mazza-olson-1-20260114-1200x900.jpg\")
\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/a><\/p>\n