The Trump administration’s Task Force to Eliminate Fraud, led by Vice President JD Vance, reported that it has shut down hundreds of hospices and health care providers over a 10-week period.
Vance’s task force, established by presidential executive order on March 16, has been working with the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services to crack down on health care fraud.
‘Remember, none of this fraud could happen unless California issued these licenses.’
CMS Administrator Dr. Mehmet Oz told Fox News Digital on Thursday that 221 hospice and health care providers in Los Angeles County had been suspended.
“We’ve shut down already, just in the last 10 weeks, 221 hospices in California,” Oz told Fox News Digital, noting that all of the entities were located in Los Angeles.
“We’re able to dramatically accelerate a process that had been meandering along in California,” Oz stated.
Roughly a third of the nation’s hospices, 1,800, are located in Los Angeles, according to Oz. He stated that the administration believes it will shut down half of those entities.
RELATED: Vance’s fraud task force drops hammer: 70 California hospice and home health providers suspended
Mehmet Oz. Alex Wong/Getty Images
“The administration’s war on fraud once again yields results as more suspensions take place and fraudsters face justice for ripping off hard-working Americans and stealing their tax dollars and social services,” a spokesperson for Vance told Blaze News. “The vice president and his task force are proud of these latest figures and expect to see this number continue to grow dramatically.”
California Democrat Gov. Gavin Newsom’s office responded to the administration’s latest efforts to suspend hospices accused of fraud.
“Glad the federal government is finally stepping up to do their part,” his office wrote. “State has been taking action for years, including suspending 280+ licenses & banning new licenses since 2022.”
RELATED: ‘Minnesota was big but California is even bigger’: Nick Shirley uncovers staggering alleged fraud right under Newsom’s nose
Gavin Newsom. Justin Sullivan/Getty Images
First Assistant United States Attorney Bill Essayli told Fox News Digital that California has “not taken fraud seriously for over a decade.”
Essayli explained that he refers to Newsom as “the fraud king” because “he has reigned over billions and billions of dollars of fraud.”
“It’s gonna be into the hundreds of billions of dollars under his watch,” Essayli said. “Remember, none of this fraud could happen unless California issued these licenses.”
Newsom’s press office fired back at Essayli after he claimed the governor has refused to implement emergency regulations that would help end hospice fraud.
“The Governor took action: he instituted a BAN on new hospice licenses back in 2022!!” the press office wrote. “Only the federal government has access to medicare billing, CRITICAL to fighting fraud — so why did it take you so long to act, First Assistant?”
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