This is one of those "yes, this is what we voted for" moments: Vice President JD Vance's task force has now withheld $1.4 billion from fraudulent home health care and hospice care providers, all across the fruited plain. That's $1.4 billion in taxpayer money that was being sought, allegedly, through fraud; that's "billion" as in a "b" followed by an "illion."
That's a big freaking deal. Fox News Preston Mizel broke the news on Wednesday.
EXCLUSIVE: JD Vance's anti-fraud task force has withheld $1.4 BILLION in federal funding from home health and hospice providers nationwide, following a wave of suspensions enacted by an anti-fraud task force targeting operations across the country.
— Preston Mizell (@MizellPreston) May 13, 2026
READ: https://t.co/HmNE2EoynP pic.twitter.com/Q8u31fNJLQ
Vice President JD Vance's anti-fraud task force has withheld $1.4 billion in federal funding from home health and hospice providers nationwide, following a wave of suspensions enacted by an anti-fraud task force targeting operations in California, Minnesota and several other states.
Approximately 90% of the suspended providers have not reached out to the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS), the agency tasked with combating fraud, waste and abuse, since payments have been suspended.
Trump administration officials told Fox News Digital that they believe a lack of communication between alleged fraudulent providers and CMS indicates that the providers were not legitimate enterprises.
"Not legitimate enterprises" is probably something of an understatement; I've some experience in navigating these systems myself, from back in the days when I had a piece of a durable medical equipment leasing business, and such a lack of communication is, or should be, a huge, flashing red light, blinking on and off, proclaiming "Here Be Fraud."
The real question is this: Why didn't the Biden administration find any of this? The answer is likely because they weren't looking for it. What a difference an election makes!
President Donald Trump has made the eradication of systemic fraud a cornerstone of his administration’s domestic policy. On Monday, CMS Administrator Dr. Mehmet Oz blasted California officials over the state's hospice crisis, charging that the fraud is "stealing your lives" and pointing to a sophisticated web of international graft.
"We’ve got Russian government involvement, we believe, in Los Angeles. We’ve got the Chinese government involved in a big fraud ring in New York," Oz told guest host Kayleigh McEnany on "Jesse Watters Primetime." "And, of course, the Cuban connection... pointed out to me by former Miami Mayor Francis Suarez. We’ve got twice as many durable medical equipment suppliers — selling wheelchairs and canes — as there are McDonald’s in South Florida. The owners often flee back to Cuba with the money the moment we move in on them."
And why wouldn't they? The American Medicare and Medicaid systems have been rife with fraud for years now. The potential take, as we see, is in the billions.
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What's really shocking and disappointing about all this is how much of this fraud was allowed to flourish simply because of inattention and incompetence on the part of those who were supposed to regulate these businesses.
In April, the head of a California hospice advocacy group warned congressional lawmakers that industry fraud is flourishing across the state. Sheila Clark, president and CEO of the California Hospice and Palliative Care Association (CHAPCA), questioned how these "ghost" providers managed to evade regulators for so long.
"You'd be amazed at how many hospices... you can walk up to the door in California and there is nobody there. You can see five months' worth of mail stacked up," Clark told the House Ways and Means Committee during an April 22 hearing. "And yet, they passed a survey. How did that happen?"
"How do you put a hospice in a burrito stand? How do you put a hospice in a retail store?" she quipped. "That all had to be vetted through licensure, certification and accreditation."
We have seen these kinds of things exposed time and again, by independent journalists, by local activists, and now by Vice President Vance's task force. But it's likely the fraudsters busted to date are the tip of the iceberg. CMS estimates for 2025 alone put the amount of "improper payments" by Medicare at around $56.7 billion, and for Medicaid, the number is about $37.39 billion. That's $94 billion in taxpayer money, "improperly" paid, most of it almost certainly to fraudsters. And, from what the Trump administration is telling us, a lot of that money has already been taken offshore to Cuba - or Russia. In other words, these fraudsters are stealing from the American taxpayers to fund our nation's adversaries.
This new crackdown is great to see. Let's hope it's not a case of too little, too late, and let's get out the vote in November, so we can keep this fraud task force funded and on course.
Editor's Note: The Democrat Party has never been less popular as voters reject its globalist agenda.
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