The vice president is chairing the White House anti-fraud task force investigating illegitimate uses of federal funds.
WASHINGTON—Vice President JD Vance announced new efforts to combat fraud nationwide during a press conference on Feb. 25 in the Eisenhower Executive Office Building with Dr. Mehmet Oz, administrator of the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services Administrator.
The federal government is temporarily deferring $259 million in Medicaid payments to the state of Minnesota, citing widespread fraud. Gov. Tim Walz has 60 days to respond.
“What we’re doing is we are stopping the federal payments that will go to the state government until the state government takes its obligations seriously to stop the fraud that’s being perpetrated against the American taxpayer,” said Vance, chair of the White House anti-fraud task force.
Minnesota already paid providers using state funds, but federal reimbursements are now on hold.
Vance described schemes uncovered in Minnesota where individuals “set up sham businesses, set up sham clients,” and added that “a lot of people are getting rich off the generosity of American taxpayers.”
“But more fundamentally and more importantly than that, it means that there are kids in Minnesota who deserve these services, who need these services, and they’re not going to those kids; they’re going to fraudsters in Minneapolis,” Vance said. “That’s unacceptable, and that’s the sort of thing that we’re cutting off with this action today.”
He said President Donald Trump’s administration prioritized the elimination of waste and abuse nationwide.
“And we are going to start very aggressively in the administration, cracking down on the people and the organizations that are defrauding Americans,” Vance said.
Oz said the action targeting Minnesota is meant to spur compliance, with announcements regarding other states coming soon.
“This quarter-billion-dollar deferment is hopefully going to get on the radar screen of the state of Minnesota and make sure they are responsive to our requests,” he said.
