Dr. Oz launches 50-state review of Medicaid program oversight
FILE-Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services Administrator Mehmet Oz speaks at a fireside chat in the National Press Building on Feb. 02, 2026 in Washington, D.C. (Photo by Heather Diehl/Getty Images)
Dr. Mehmet Oz said that the Trump administration is going to require all 50 states to explain their plans to legitimize some of their Medicaid providers.
Oz talks 50-state review of the Medicaid program
Dig deeper:
The announcement by Dr. Mehmet Oz, the administrator for the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, is part of a federal campaign to manage waste, fraud and abuse in federal Medicaid and Medicare programs.
During a Politico health summit Tuesday, Oz said that the federal agency plans to call for states to "own" the problem of health care fraud this week with requests for states to share their strategies within 30 days.
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What they're saying:
"It's an example of what we'd like them to do to prove that they're serious about this," Oz said. "And if you don't take it seriously, it indicates to us that we might have to take the audits that we're doing to the different states more aggressively," he said.
According to the Associated Press, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services made a mistake in data it used to justify a fraud investigation in New York. The agency has also approached roughly four other states with probes into possible health care fraud and blocked some $243 million in Medicaid payments to one of them, Minnesota, over fraud worries.
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Separately, the CMS is also blocking for six months new Medicare enrollments for suppliers of durable medical equipment, prosthetics, orthotics, or other supplies around the nation to address possible fraud.
Oz also explained at the event that federal health programs in certain states enrolled large numbers of providers who aren’t providing real care to patients but are profiting from fraud.
He concluded by adding that the requests for states to validate the authenticity of Medicaid providers is targeting "high risk areas."
The Source: Information for this story was provided by The Associated Press, which references Dr. Mehmet Oz’s comments about the Medicaid program oversight. This story was reported from Washington, D.C.