Mehmet Oz cracking down on Medicaid fraud at New York adult day care centers

(The Center Square) — The Trump administration is targeting New York adult day care centers as part of broader efforts to crack down on fraud in the taxpayer-funded Medicaid programs.On Tuesday, U.S. Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services Administrator Mehmet Oz joined federal and state authorities for several raids and personally delivered letters to adult day care providers in New York City that the federal agency has accused of fraudulent or suspicious billing for services.
Oz was accompanied by a Fox News Digital crew, which documented several testy exchanges between the administrator and a manager at Queen’s adult daycare center over how many people are attending the facility’s taxpayer-funded programs.
“The whole experience was suspicious,” Oz told Fox News in an interview after the visits. “We know from the billing here that there’s no way this business is running in the way that they claim to be running without something being wrong. Is it an innocent mistake? A hundred times in a row, I don’t think so.”
In an interview with the news organization, Oz claimed a federal investigation has revealed that organized criminal networks are exploiting the Medicaid-funded programs “by offering seniors money to attend facilities and then billing the government for services that were not actually provided.”
The administrator claimed people connected to the “Chinese mafia” were paying some seniors between $1,000 and $1,200 to participate in fraudulent billing arrangements. He didn’t provide any evidence during the interview.
Oz said the New York investigations were part of a broader war on fraud in the Medicaid-funded social adult day care programs, with federal spending on the services rising to $1 billion a year.
In March. Oz announced that he has launched an investigation into potential fraud in New York’s $124 billion Medicaid system and demanded “detailed information” about the state’s fraud prevention and integrity efforts, citing the “explosive growth” in the number of workers serving elderly New Yorkers in home care and personal care programs, among other concerns.
New York’s average spending on each Medicaid beneficiary is $12,528 — 36% higher than the national average, he said, pointing out that the state’s Medicaid program costs $90 billion a year, second highest in the nation.
The Hochul administration has defended its efforts to crack down on fraud and waste in the Medicaid program and accused the Trump administration of unfairly targeting democratic states while it cuts funding for federal healthcare programs.
New York Gov. Kathy Hochul acknowledged the crackdown on Tuesday, calling it part of a “massive effort to combat fraud and abuse” in Medicaid and pointing out that state health officials have joined federal and state law enforcement in targeting adult day care programs.
More than 6.8 million New Yorkers — 34% of the state’s population — are currently covered by Medicaid, which is jointly funded by the state and federal government. President Donald Trump recently declared a “war on fraud” and has threatened to cut off federal funding for Democrat-run states if they do not provide proper oversight of Medicaid, food stamps, and other public benefit payments.
The crackdown follows allegations that a group of Somali immigrants defrauded Minnesota taxpayers of more than $1 billion through the state’s Medicaid program.

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