The Trump administration is doubling down on its fraud-fighting crusade because it seeks to present Americans that it’s an attentive steward of taxpayer funds forward of November’s midterm election.
Vice President JD Vance is about to spotlight his anti-fraud process power’s efforts in Maine on Thursday, only a day after he and different prime officers unveiled a number of measures aimed toward combatting fraud in Medicare and Medicaid. Maine’s Senate race, the place GOP Sen. Susan Collins is operating for a sixth time period, is predicted to be amongst the best contests this yr.
“We want to protect Medicaid. We want to protect Medicare,” Vance mentioned at an occasion on the White House campus. “But we can’t do that if the states that are administering those programs are allowing those programs to be fleeced by fraudsters.”
President Donald Trump’s fixation on fraud in federal profit applications has been met with blended reactions. Some consultants say he and his workforce are exaggerating the quantity of fraud that exists, whereas others say they’re underestimating it. The administration’s ways have equally garnered each criticism — notably for the harsh phrases and actions towards Democratic-led states — and reward for lastly tackling a longstanding challenge in the federal authorities.
One of Trump’s key fraud fighters, Dr. Mehmet Oz, has called out alleged fraud involving Maine’s Medicaid-funded remedy program for youngsters with autism, hospice and residential care suppliers in California, social grownup day care facilities in New York and sturdy medical gear firms in Florida, amongst different schemes. Oz leads the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, which administers a number of applications at excessive threat for fraud.
One drawback is that no complete information exists to present simply how pervasive fraud is in security web applications, though prosecutions towards criminals who steal hundreds of thousands of {dollars} are frequent. Last yr, the Justice Department introduced it had charged 324 defendants for his or her alleged participation in additional than $14.6 billion in healthcare-related fraud schemes, greater than double the earlier file.
The Government Accountability Office estimated in 2024 that between $233 billion and $521 billion in federal cash may very well be misplaced yearly to fraud in a first-of-its-kind government-wide estimate. That represents 3% to 7% of common federal obligations, although GAO famous the degree of threat can differ considerably by company and program.
Relatedly, the federal authorities additionally made about $186 billion in improper funds throughout 64 applications in fiscal yr 2025, in accordance to GAO’s overview of a small subset of federal applications. But not all improper funds are fraudulent — some could also be due to administrative errors.
Improper funds have totaled $3 trillion since fiscal yr 2003, in accordance to GAO’s estimates, although it notes that the precise quantity may very well be “significantly higher.”
Meanwhile, Oz has mentioned that fraud, waste and abuse in the federal healthcare applications his company oversees totals $100 billion a yr.
But one former senior government in GAO’s fraud unit mentioned that GAO’s and Oz’s fraud estimates are more than likely too low.
“There’s a ton of taxpayer dollars being lost,” mentioned Linda Miller, president of the Program Integrity Alliance, a nonprofit aimed toward enhancing the authorities’s capability to fight fraud.
Organized felony teams and different refined gamers have turn out to be adept at stealing federal funds, ramping up throughout the Covid-19 pandemic and persevering with afterwards.
While GAO has lengthy highlighted the vulnerabilities in federal departments and applications, they typically aren’t addressed. Concerns about prices, outdated expertise, administrative burdens and privateness, together with pushback from industries and advocates, can get in the method.
“There is a lack of attention, priority, commitment and decisive action at the highest level of agencies, regardless of administration,” Seto Bagdoyan, a director on GAO’s forensic audits and investigative service workforce, has advised NCS. He believes the fraud estimates are doubtless understated.
Spotlight on Medicare and Medicaid
Trump officers have alleged there’s fraud in a wide range of federal applications since the president took workplace in January 2025. Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins mentioned 186,000 lifeless individuals’s Social Security numbers had been getting used to gather meals stamps, whereas billionaire Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency claimed it wanted entry to delicate Social Security databases to root out fraud.
And the administration has ramped up fraud probes into federal childcare and Medicaid funding in Minnesota.
The highlight is now particularly targeted on Medicare and Medicaid, with Oz filming a number of movies in locations the place he claims fraud is going on. He has despatched letters to governors in a number of states demanding data and motion plans to fight fraud. And the company is withholding $1.3 billion in Medicaid reimbursements from California and $350 million from Minnesota till the states can justify the claims.
Several of the administration’s newest anti-fraud efforts have been nationwide in scope. On Wednesday, the Department of Health and Human Services’ Office of Inspector General knowledgeable state attorneys normal that it will overview their Medicaid Fraud Control Units, that are tasked with investigating and prosecuting fraud amongst Medicaid suppliers. If states don’t step up their items’ fraud prosecutions, they might lose their federal assist for the program, which totals practically $500 million.
Meanwhile, Oz declared that he was putting a six-month nationwide moratorium on new enrollment of hospice and residential well being suppliers in Medicare. This comes after he declared an analogous pause on new enrollment for sure suppliers of sturdy medical gear, similar to wheelchairs and braces.
Improper funds in Medicare and Medicaid account for simply over half of the whole, in accordance to GAO’s report.
Nearly $29 billion in improper funds, or roughly 6.6% of the whole, had been made in conventional Medicare in fiscal yr 2025, in accordance to the newest CMS information. For Medicare Advantage, the determine was practically $24 billion, or 6.1%.
More than 6.1% of Medicaid funds, or greater than $37 billion, had been improper.
While Miller mentioned she is glad the administration is rising consideration on the challenge of fraud, she disagrees with the messaging from the White House. Vance, Oz and others have criticized states, notably these led by Democrats, as being too lax of their oversight of the applications. But earlier presidents – in addition to Trump throughout his first time period – didn’t make fraud a excessive precedence, she mentioned.
“It’s not that states don’t care,” Miller mentioned. “It’s that they haven’t been told by the federal government to care.”