'Complete disgrace': JD Vance issues ultimatum to states to crack down on Medicaid fraud

Vice President JD Vance, who chairs the Task Force to Eliminate Fraud, announced on Wednesday the first major steps to compel states to crack down on Medicaid fraud nationwide.

During a press conference Wednesday on anti-fraud initiatives, Vance declared that the Trump administration would be “very aggressively” encouraging states to take fraud concerns more seriously.

‘So these letters are the first step, the first effort to try to force these states to get serious about prosecuting fraud.’

He explained that the U.S. Medicaid system is run like 50 separate systems.

“The federal government pays most of the Medicaid money, but then each of the individual states actually administers the Medicaid program,” Vance stated.

Despite the federal government generously funding Medicaid Fraud Control Units, responsible for detecting and eliminating fraud, some states are not using them, Vance stated. He highlighted his point by providing examples.

Vance stated that Hawaii, a state that has received billions of taxpayers’ dollars through the Medicaid system, had not made a single fraud conviction or indictment “over the last few years.”

“That means that if you’re committing fraud in Medicaid in Hawaii, at least up until now — hopefully now they’re going to take it seriously — you have had effectively free rein from the government of Hawaii to commit as much fraud as you want,” Vance stated. “That is a complete disgrace.”

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JD Vance. Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images

Vance explained that New York, which has a $100 billion Medicaid program, has had only nine indictments over the last year.

The vice president compared New York, a Democratic-led state, to Indiana, a Republican-led state. He noted that despite Indiana having only a third of New York’s population, it has pursued more than four times as many indictments during the same period.

Vance stated that the federal government is withholding $1.3 billion in Medicaid reimbursements to California. He said that the state has “not taken fraud very seriously,” resulting in California and American taxpayers being defrauded.

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Vance announced that 50 state Medicaid programs would be receiving a letter requiring them to demonstrate that they are “effectively and aggressively prosecuting” fraud. If they fail to do so, their anti-fraud units will no longer receive federal funds.

“We encourage people to work with us. We want to help you use technology and other tools to get rid of the fraud, to get to the root of the fraud. We want to help you,” Vance stated. “But we can only help these state programs if those state programs are willing to help themselves. So these letters are the first step, the first effort to try to force these states to get serious about prosecuting fraud.”