{"id":2602360,"date":"2026-05-13T18:09:02","date_gmt":"2026-05-13T22:09:02","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/we-are-going-to-turn-off-the-money-vances-anti-fraud-taskforce-to-make-states-prove-they-prosecute-fraud\/"},"modified":"2026-05-13T18:14:31","modified_gmt":"2026-05-13T22:14:31","slug":"we-are-going-to-turn-off-the-money-vances-anti-fraud-taskforce-to-make-states-prove-they-prosecute-fraud","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/we-are-going-to-turn-off-the-money-vances-anti-fraud-taskforce-to-make-states-prove-they-prosecute-fraud\/","title":{"rendered":"Anti-Fraud Task Force To Make States Prove They Prosecute Fraud"},"content":{"rendered":"<aside class=\"mashsb-container mashsb-main mashsb-stretched\"><div class=\"mashsb-box\"><div class=\"mashsb-count mash-medium\" style=\"&quot;\"><div class=\"counts mashsbcount\">20<\/div><span class=\"mashsb-sharetext\">SHARES<\/span><\/div><div class=\"mashsb-buttons\"><a class=\"mashicon-facebook mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/sharer.php?u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.conservativenewsdaily.net%2Fbreaking-news%2Fwe-are-going-to-turn-off-the-money-vances-anti-fraud-taskforce-to-make-states-prove-they-prosecute-fraud%2F\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Facebook<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-twitter mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/intent\/tweet?text=&amp;url=https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=2602360&amp;via=ConservNewsDly\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Twitter<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-subscribe mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"#\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Subscribe<\/span><\/a><div class=\"onoffswitch2 mash-medium mashsb-noshadow\" style=\"display:none\"><\/div><\/div>\n            <\/div>\n                <div style=\"clear:both\"><\/div><\/aside>\n            <!-- Share buttons by mashshare.net - Version: 4.0.47--><p>Vice President J.D. Vance says a new White House <a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/half-of-pandemic-unemployment-money-from-past-year-stolen-bulk-of-it-in-foreign-hands-report\/\" title=\"Half Of Pandemic Unemployment Money From Past Year Stolen,  \u2018Bulk\u2019 Of It In Foreign Hands:\u00a0Report\">anti-fraud <a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/how-to-show-lockdowns-are-killing-more-people-than-the-virus\/\" title=\"How To Show Lockdowns Are Killing More ... Than The Virus\">task force<\/a><\/a> will pressure states to demonstrate they actively investigate adn prosecute Medicaid fraud. He warns that states that cannot show \u201caggressive\u201d enforcement will lose medicaid Fraud Control Unit funding, arguing some jurisdictions-mostly Democratic-leaning-treat the issue as insufficiently serious and effectively use the money as a legal-services jobs program rather than to stop fraud.<\/p>\n<p>Vance and FTC chair Andrew Ferguson also argue fraud may involve not only providers but possibly government personnel or other actors; they say they are examining whether any cases rise to criminal conduct. CMS Administrator Mehmet Oz adds that fraud is already severe and can include practices like unnecessary medications,large-scale billing schemes,and identity theft targeting SNAP and Medicare-funded services.<\/p>\n<p>The <a href=\"https:\/\/amzn.to\/3YuVZYV\" >management cites specific examples<\/a>, including California being hit with a deferral of $1.3 billion in Medicaid reimbursements for alleged neglect. For hospice, Oz claims a large share of providers concentrated around Los Angeles are likely fraudulent, leading to the suspension of 800 facilities that billed $1.4 billion; he says manny did not respond to government inquiries. Because fraudsters may relocate,the government is imposing a nationwide moratorium on new hospice and home health company licenses while it improves coordination.<\/p>\n<p>the administration frames fraud as harming both taxpayers and people who genuinely need Medicare and Medicaid protections, and says the goal is to stop fraud without cutting necessary services.  <\/p>\n<p class=\"readmore\">\n    <button onclick=\"showReadMore()\" id=\"readmorebtn\">Read more&#8230;<\/button>\n<\/p>\n<hr id=\"line\">\n<span id=\"more\"><\/p>\n<div>\n<p>THE WHITE HOUSE \u2014 Vice President J.D. Vance announced Wednesday that his anti-fraud task force is going to force states to prove that they actually prosecute fraud, threatening to strip billions from state legal coffers if they do not comply.<\/p>\n<p>Each state has a taxpayer-funded Medicaid Fraud Control Unit (MFCU), which is specifically designed to fund investigations and prosecutions of Medicaid fraud. Vance said that the states will need to prove they are \u201caggressively\u201d going after fraud, and if they are not, they will be stripped of all MFCU money so the federal government can do their jobs for them.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe have red states and blue states that go after fraud aggressively, but we also unfortunately have some states, mostly blue states, unfortunately, that do not take Medicaid fraud very seriously,\u201d Vance said at a press briefing in the Indian Treaty Room at the Eisenhower Executive Office Building.<\/p>\n<p>Vance clarified that the task force will target the funding of impotent prosecution teams, not money allocated to program recipients.<\/p>\n<p>Federal Trade Commission Chairman Andrew Ferguson, vice chair of the anti-fraud task force, said states allowing fraud are a \u201cresult of decades of corruption, particularly in blue states,\u201d noting that many of them \u201chave taken tens of billions of dollars to pay lawyers\u201d to prosecute fraud, but have little or nothing to show for it.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWhen the states just take this money and turn it into a jobs program for blue state lawyers, they are effectively participating in the elder abuse in those states, because the American people turn over their money to these state programs to protect their parents and their grandparents from elder abuse, and if you aren\u2019t doing it, you are effectively participating in that process,\u201d Ferguson said.<\/p>\n<p>Vance said that if states refuse to prove they are going after fraud, \u201cwe are going to turn off that anti-fraud money,\u201d and said the issue can escalate to turning off other resources as well.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cOur goal here is not to do that. We don\u2019t want to turn off any money. What we want to do is ensure that people are taking fraud seriously,\u201d he added. \u201cWe want to protect Medicaid. We want to protect Medicare, but we can\u2019t do that if the states that are administering those programs are allowing those programs to be fleeced by fraudsters.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>When asked by The Federalist about whether the government suspects federal or state bureaucrats might be complicit in the fraud, Vance said it is \u201cpossible\u201d and that his team is looking into whether there are cases that rise to the level of criminal conduct.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cAs much as we care about protecting these programs, we also care about ensuring that federal and state officers aren\u2019t violating the law, and if they are violating law, then of course we have to prosecute, and that\u2019s an important part of the justice under law,\u201d Vance said. \u201cSo we\u2019re looking into this stuff, but I can\u2019t \u2026 commit to it, because, unlike the last administration, we tend to only prosecute people when they actually violate the law, not just because they have the wrong political affiliation.\u201d<\/p>\n<figure>\n<p><span><\/p>\n<blockquote data-width=\"500\" data-dnt=\"true\">\n<p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">On FRAUD <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/VP?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">@VP<\/a> VANCE tells me it\u2019s possible bureaucrats responsible for administering program funding are complicit in helping fraudsters and that the anti-fraud task force is looking into possible criminal conduct. <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/FDRLST?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">@FDRLST<\/a> <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/R6tKsTAV0q\">pic.twitter.com\/R6tKsTAV0q<\/a><\/p>\n<p>\u2014 Breccan F. Thies (@BreccanFThies) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/BreccanFThies\/status\/2054653218660188398?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">May 13, 2026<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><\/span> <\/p>\n<\/figure>\n<p>Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) Administrator Mehmet Oz suggested there may be complicity from elected officials in some states, asking, \u201cDo the governors always feel that fraud in Medicaid is a flaw?\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe are concerned that some governors see these programs as jobs programs, and their downstream impact of that, that resembles political patronage that we\u2019re very serious about,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n<p>Vance pointed to states like California, New York, and Hawaii that are rampant with fraud, but do not use federal funds specifically set aside for states to prosecute Medicaid fraud, noting Hawaii has zero indictments and zero convictions for Medicaid fraud in years.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cNot a single indictment, not a single conviction, because the administrators of the Hawaii program just don\u2019t take it seriously. They don\u2019t think that fraud is a big enough problem. They don\u2019t care about protecting resources. They don\u2019t care about protecting that Medicaid program,\u201d Vance said, noting other states were similar, with absurdly low numbers of fraud prosecutions.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cNew York has had nine indictments over the last year \u2014 nine indictments,\u201d he said. \u201cThat\u2019s a $100 billion Medicaid program just in New York, and you had nine indictments. Indiana, which has about a third of the population of the state of New York, has had more than four times as many indictments over the same period.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Vance announced that the government is deferring $1.3 billion in Medicaid reimbursements to California because of state leaders\u2019 neglect.<\/p>\n<p>According to Vance, they have found fraud where people are prescribed unnecessary medications because \u201cfraudsters have actually encouraged false prescriptions and false administration of medications.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cYou assume that your doctor is doing the right thing, but these fraudulent health care providers are getting rich by giving people medications they don\u2019t even need,\u201d he said. \u201cIt\u2019s a defrauding of the American taxpayer, but it\u2019s a violation of the trust that should exist between every American and the people who prescribe the medications.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Ferguson said that there are numerous cases where gangs will steal the identity of Americans who are on a program like the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), max out those individuals\u2019 EBT cards, and stop them from being able to access food programs that are helping them feed themselves and their children.<\/p>\n<p>Oz said the fraud is astronomical, with billing \u201cso big you can\u2019t even imagine.\u201d He explained, for example, that fraudsters can steal Medicare numbers and take money for unwanted hospice, and then if that person needs to go to the emergency room, he has no way of paying.<\/p>\n<p>One-third of all hospice programs \u201cin the entire country\u201d are in the Los Angeles area, he explained, saying that it was impossible for all of them to be legitimate and that the task force suspects at least half are fraudulent. Oz announced that the government has suspended 800 of those hospice facilities, which charged the American taxpayers $1.4 billion.<\/p>\n<p>One piece of evidence that suggests these companies were fraudulent is that of the 800 operations suspended, fewer than 20 contacted the government to find out what happened. From the rest, Oz said, all the government heard was \u201ccrickets.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>But fraudsters will move out of a place where they were shut down and set up shop in new locations, Oz explained. The anti-fraud task force has already been tracking a \u201csevenfold increase\u201d in hospices in Nevada, and increases in Arizona and Texas as well.<\/p>\n<p>In response, the government is placing a nationwide moratorium on establishing new hospices or home health care companies.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe\u2019re not taking away any services, but there will be no new ones licenses granted until we can figure out a better way of working across government,\u201d Oz said.<\/p>\n<p>Vance said that fraud always has \u201ctwo fundamental victims\u201d: the American taxpayer funding the programs, and the American who might genuinely need to use the programs.<\/p>\n<hr>\n<p>      Breccan F. Thies is the White House correspondent for The Federalist. He is a co-recipient of the 2025 Dao Prize for Excellence in Investigative Journalism. As an investigative journalist, he previously covered education and culture issues for the Washington Examiner and Breitbart News. He holds a degree from the University of Virginia and is a 2022 Claremont Institute Publius Fellow. You can follow him on X: @BreccanFThies.<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<p><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Vance: states must prove Medicaid fraud prosecutions or lose billions<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":179,"featured_media":2602361,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mo_disable_npp":"","fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/thefederalist.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/IMG_8945-scaled.jpeg","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[70499,79627,79628],"class_list":["post-2602360","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","tag-anti-fraud","tag-fraud-prosecution","tag-state-accountability"],"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/thefederalist.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/IMG_8945-scaled.jpeg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2602360","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/179"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2602360"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2602360\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2602365,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2602360\/revisions\/2602365"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2602361"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2602360"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2602360"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2602360"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}