American Thought Leaders with Jan Jekielek
“Minnesota…is just the tip of the iceberg,” says Dr. Mehmet Oz, the administrator of the Centers of the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS).
Minnesota has become the epicenter of several overlapping fraud investigations of childcare programs, small business pandemic loans, and Medicaid services. Earlier this month, Dr. Oz traveled to Minnesota to tour suspected fraud sites and meet with whistleblowers and announced that over $2 billion in annual Medicaid funding might be withheld.
“What we’re seeing in Minnesota—which is billions of dollars of fraud that hurts our most vulnerable people and puts them at risk…is dwarfed by what I saw in California, which is whole-scale cultural malfeasance around health care,” Dr. Oz says.
Dr. Oz oversees programs that together constitute about one-fourth of the entire U.S. federal budget.
Dr. Oz just revealed how fraudsters hijacked California’s hospice system.
He exposed how this fraud is ruining lives—and doctors are cashing in on it.
“How is it that we’ve gotten 7x more hospice in California over the last several years?”
“Doctors are being paid to send people inappropriately to hospice.”
“The hospice is designed for the last six months of your life.”
“What happens if 100% of the people in hospice survive six months?”
“If you’re put into hospice, you actually give up the rest of your healthcare protection.”
“People are put on hospice who don’t know it.”
“And now they don’t have access to regular Medicare anymore.”
“So people are dying because they can’t get care because they were falsely tricked into being on hospice.”
“The doctors are getting engaged so much in the hospice that it’s beginning to undermine the basic ethos of the healthcare profession.”
In this episode, he breaks down how home healthcare and hospice systems are being exploited on a massive scale and also how Medicare beneficiary numbers are being stolen and weaponized for fraudulent billing schemes.
As the administration approaches its one‑year mark, he reflects on efforts to cut waste, lower drug prices, and transform health in America.
President Donald Trump has recently unveiled his new “Great Healthcare Plan” to lower prices and increase transparency.
“For decades, Americans have been paying three times more than Europeans and other developed nations have been paying for the exact same drugs made in the same facilities,” Dr. Oz says.
