The businesses collectively billed an estimated $380 million to Medicaid, according to Dr. Mehment Oz.
Dr. Mehmet Oz, administrator of the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS), said on Jan. 23 that a building in Minnesota, which used to be a linen factory, is housing 400 Medicaid-billing businesses.
In a video posted on social media, Oz revealed the finding while standing alongside Deputy Health Secretary and acting CDC Director Jim O’Neill outside the Griggs-Midway Building in St. Paul, Minnesota.
You’d never believe the kinds of fraud schemes happening in Minnesota. @HHS_Jim and I were taken aback to say the least.
— DrOzCMS (@DrOzCMS) January 23, 2026
Here’s just a snippet of what we saw on the ground and are working to stop. pic.twitter.com/UNgpjrMoIk
“Behind me is the Griggs Midway building. It looks like a factory because it was a factory,” he said. “Roughly 400 Medicaid businesses were started in the building behind me over the last several years.”
These businesses, Oz said, collectively billed an estimated $380 million to Medicaid, sparking fraud concerns, especially given that the building is located in an industrial area.
“You can’t imagine getting extra business support. An autistic child probably wouldn’t want to come here. You hear the noise. It’s just not a hospitable place,” he said. “The question is, how is it possible 400 businesses, billing almost $400 million, were able to thrive here?”
Oz said he thinks it’s perplexing that state authorities did not monitor how an industrial complex, where people typically wouldn’t seek child care or transportation support, could end up housing hundreds of Medicaid-billing businesses.
“How is it possible this could come up like an abscess in the heart of Minneapolis and nobody was watching? I think it’s because they weren’t looking. They didn’t want to know that there was a problem happening here,” he said.
“It’s very concerning to me that only now, when there’s more federal supervision, are people beginning to ask tough questions.”
Minnesota has been under the spotlight for Medicaid and other fraud, including a $300 million pandemic fraud case involving the nonprofit organization Feeding Our Future. Prosecutors said it was the country’s largest COVID-19-related fraud scam and that the defendants—mostly Somalis—exploited a state-run, federally funded program intended to provide food for children.
