The U.S. is placing a temporary pause on new Medicare billing enrollments for home healthcare and hospice providers amid a nationwide crackdown on millions or billions in healthcare fraud from California to Maine.
[RELATED: Welcome to Maine, Mr. Vice President — Now Let’s Expose the Fraud Machine…]
“Widespread fraud has gone on for far too long. But under the Vice President’s task force we are finally putting a stop to the massive scale fraudsters ripping off the American people once and for all,” a spokesperson for Vice President J.D. Vance told Reuters.
Reuters first reported the development on Wednesday, citing an unnamed senior administration official, but the reports have since been seemingly confirmed after official government accounts for the Vice President and Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) Administrator Dr. Mehmet Oz reposted the article.
“Much more to come. Stay tuned,” said Administrator Oz on X.
According to the report, the administration is placing a nationwide moratorium, beginning Wednesday, on all new home healthcare and hospice providers enrolling in Medicare billing.
The pause is reportedly intended to give the CMS an opportunity to take a full accounting of Medicare billing from home health and hospice providers to implement new procedures.
The pause is set to last for six months.
The unnamed official told the outlet that part of the inspiration for the moratorium was the speed at which new fraudulent healthcare providers can be created.
In California, the administration has targeted numerous fraudulently billing hospices; in Minnesota, fraudulent daycares and other businesses have faced a federal crackdown.
Maine’s home healthcare industry has yet to face a direct crackdown, but that could change as Vice President Vance is scheduled to speak in Bangor on Thursday and specifically address anti-fraud efforts.
The moratorium will not affect billing under Medicaid. The Maine Wire has reported on tens of millions in allegedly fraudulent billing of MaineCare, Maine’s branch of Medicaid, by home health care providers, most of which are immigrant-owned and operated.
Around the same time as Reuters published their article, Fox issued their own exclusive report revealing that Vance’s anti-fraud task force has withheld $1.4 billion in federal funding from home health and hospice providers.
Approximately 90 percent of the providers whose funds were withheld did not reach out to CMS, and administration officials told Fox that they believe that is a sign that those 90 percent were not legitimate businesses.
The group of suspended providers included long-term billers who have allegedly been defrauding the government of millions for years.
Rep. James Comer (R-Ky.), Chair of the House Oversight Committee, confirmed Fox’s reporting in an X post.
“VP Vance’s fraud task force just announced it has withheld $1.4 BILLION in federal funding from home hospice providers nationwide who have ripped off taxpayers. @GOPoversight continues to expose this fraud in Minnesota, California, and now Ohio. We aren’t slowing down,” said Rep. Comer.
