Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) Administrator Mehmet Oz on Tuesday unveiled a nationwide crackdown on Medicaid fraud, ordering all 50 states to submit provider revalidation plans within 30 days or face intensified federal audits.
Speaking at Politico’s Health Care Summit, Oz said his agency would send formal requests to every state this week. “We’re asking the states to own that problem red and blue, all of them,” he said. “If you don’t take it seriously, it indicates to us that we might have to take the audits more aggressively.”
The Political Context
The campaign follows President Donald Trump’s State of the Union declaration of a “war on fraud,” with Vice President JD Vance leading the broader effort. In February, CMS temporarily withheld $259.5 million in Medicaid funding from Minnesota over alleged fraud, threatening cuts exceeding $2 billion annually before the state submitted a corrective action plan.
“I love Medicaid,” Oz said Tuesday. “When you love something, you protect it. You don’t let it get defrauded.”
The administration is simultaneously pushing to dismantle the Affordable Care Act, with Trump proposing direct cash payments to consumers instead of routing federal support through insurers, even as at least six states move in the opposite direction, building tax incentives for small businesses to enroll workers in ACA marketplace plans.
The fraud offensive runs alongside sweeping Medicaid cuts. A Public Citizen report found 446 hospitals at heightened closure risk following more than $900 billion in reductions under Trump’s One Big Beautiful Bill Act, with Universal Health Services Inc. (NYSE:UHS) and Ardent Health Inc. (NYSE:ARDT) facing the steepest headwinds.
Disclaimer: This content was produced with the help of AI tools and was reviewed and published by Benzinga editors.
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