WASHINGTON—The administration will ask all 50 states to provide a plan to revalidate Medicaid providers in some areas in the next 30 days, Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) Administrator Mehmet Oz said April 21 in a recorded discussion.
Oz said the goal is to protect Medicaid—and other health programs Americans value—from fraudulent actors.
“I believe this audit and others like it will save the programs we care most about,” Oz said on stage at Politico’s Health Care Summit. “I want to make sure we have access to care for those who need care.”
He didn’t provide specifics about the deadline or what would be required, but did say that states that do not respond may face harsher scrutiny if they are unable to show that recipients of funds are legitimate.
“If you don’t take it seriously, it indicates to us that we might have to take the audits we’re taking to different states more aggressively,” Oz said.
He also called out several components of federally funded homecare programs, saying that:
- The administration had gone after more than 400 California hospices and home health agencies in recent weeks as part of its anti-fraud focus.
- In Florida, there are twice as many durable medical equipment providers as there are McDonald's restaurants. “This is clearly an aberration,” he said. “There’s no way you can have twice as many selling wheelchairs as hamburgers.”
- That in New York, some 450,000 people are providing personal care—a number he cast aspersions on, saying that while there may be good reasons “to pay for things your family used to do for you,” it’s now “the No. 1 job in New York state.”