The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services head Mehmet Oz — a former television star — has become the administration’s face, publishing numerous videos, social media posts and regulations that tout the agency’s commitment to crushing fraud in hospice, home health, durable medical equipment, and other industries. In January, CMS threatened to withhold roughly $2 billion in funding for 14 Medicaid services in Minnesota for the next year.
To the disability community, the crackdown feels less like the administration is rooting out crime and more like it is using fraud as an excuse to cut critical services — especially after the administration’s tax bill last year that slashed Medicaid funding by $1 trillion over 10 years, forcing state health officials to consider ending critical services like home care for millions of people.
The timing of the recent, targeted efforts by federal authorities is especially problematic and threatens gains won over many years of activism, advocates told STAT.
“We’ve been fighting to expand access to these services over decades and decades. It hasn’t been easy, but there has been bipartisan support for expanding these programs and services,” said Natalie Kean, federal health advocacy director at Justice in Aging. “To be constantly trying to defend what we have is exhausting.”
