HHS withholds $867 million in Medicaid payments to California as part of ‘crackdown on fraud’
In the latest salvo in the battle between the Trump administration and California, Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. He said Tuesday that his agency had halted $867.5 million in Medicaid payments to the state due to fraud concerns.
Kennedy also said his agency delayed a $199 million Medicaid payment to Minnesota due to similar concerns.
“If Governor Gavin Newsom or Governor Tim Walz wants this funding released, all they have to do is provide basic documentation showing that these services are legitimate and not fraudulent,” Kennedy said at a news conference.
Just under half of the funds withheld from California were related to home health care.
Director of the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, Dr. California’s spending on home health care has more than doubled the national average in the last two fiscal years, Mehmet Oz said.
“This doesn’t make any sense,” he said.
About a quarter of the funds withheld were related to care provided to individuals with “insufficient immigration status” whose eligibility to be in the country and receive these services is questionable, which Oz called “a major ongoing problem for California.”
Kennedy and Oz’s announcement Tuesday comes two months after Vice President J.D. Vance said the administration would delay $1.3 billion in Medicaid payments, largely due to fraud concerns linked to nursing homes and home health care.
Newsom’s office called the announcement a “recycled political stunt” in a social media post.
“California is not being targeted because Trump has evidence of fraud,” the post said. “We are being targeted for political reasons – and Dr. Oz doesn’t understand that we *SAVE* taxpayer money by keeping the elderly and disabled out of much more expensive nursing homes!”
Newsom’s office also said the state “stands ready to collaborate” with the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services “with good faith efforts to combat fraud.”
California Adv. Gen. Rob Bonta said allegations of payment delays and fraud are being reviewed.
“We have not hesitated to challenge the Trump administration’s unlawful actions and will continue to take action when Californians’ rights or access to critical services are threatened,” Bonta’s office said.
Despite Newsom’s claims that the accusations are political, California’s State Auditor has repeatedly flagged Medi-Cal eligibility discrepancies that have exposed the state to billions of dollars in questionable payments.
Newsom and Oz have clashed before.
Newsom filed a civil rights complaint against Oz in January after Oz posted a video on social media in which Van Nuys accused the “Russian Armenian mafia” of being the leading cause of $3.5 billion in fraud in nursing homes and home care services.
Newsom said Oz’s claims were “baseless and racist.”
Kennedy and Oz’s announcement on Tuesday is the Trump administration’s latest effort to bring down the United States. Medicaid fraud suspected in many states across the country.
