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The Trump administration is threatening to withhold Medicaid money from all 50 states if they do not show that they are complying with federal anti-fraud statutes.
Vice President Vance told reporters Wednesday that a letter sent to states by the Department of Health and Human Services inspector general requires them to show that they are “effectively and aggressively prosecuting Medicaid fraud in their states.”
States have what’s called Medicaid Fraud Control Unites that are funded by the federal government as a way for states to investigate any fraud they find.
“And if they do not, if they do not aggressively prosecute Medicaid fraud, we are going to turn off the money that goes to these anti-fraud units,” Vance said.
He added that the federal government is also deferring over $1 billion in Medicaid reimbursements from California over fraud in the state.
“This does not have to be a red state or a blue state issue. This is just basic good government,” Vance said.
He said he had both red and blue states that were working with the administration on this issue, and some that were not.
He named Hawaii, New York and California as states that were not cooperative, and Ohio and Maryland as two that were.
Vance said that if these states do not start cooperating and taking fraud seriously, they can lose their anti-fraud money along with other resources within their Medicaid programs.
“Our goal here is not to do that. We don’t want to turn off any money,” he said. “What we want to do is ensure that people are taking fraud seriously. We want to protect Medicaid. We want to protect Medicare, but we can’t do that if the states that are administering those programs are allowing those programs to be fleeced by fraudsters.”
HHS also announced Wednesday that it is placing a moratorium on new Medicare enrollments from home health care and hospice providers.
The six-month freeze went into effect Wednesday. The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services is partnering with Vance’s Anti-Fraud Task Force that was created earlier this year. The task force had its first meeting in March.
“Half of the fraud we believe in the federal government could be coming out of healthcare services,” CMS Administrator Dr. Mehmet Oz said.
In February, the administration paused hundreds of millions in Medicaid reimbursement funds in Minnesota after allegations of widespread fraud against a Minnesota social services program.
Since then, other blue states, like Maine, California and New York, have been targeted for fraud investigations.
Arrests were made last month in California over health care fraud.
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