How Dr. Oz Became Trump’s Medicare and Medicaid Fraud Fighter

Dr. Mehmet Oz built his reputation as “America’s Doctor” dispensing easy-to-follow medical advice on television. Now, as a top health official in the Trump administration, he is harnessing his charisma and TV skills to send a different message: that Medicare and Medicaid are riddled with fraud, adding billions to the cost of the massive public healthcare programs.

With a camera crew still in tow, Oz is going on-site in multiple, mostly Democratic-led states to film video after video calling out improper spending. He has also filmed himself tagging along with armed federal agents raiding allegedly fraudulent healthcare providers. The highly produced videos, viewed millions of times on social media, have endeared him to President Donald Trump and made Oz a top lieutenant in the president’s quest to root out wasteful spending.

Tapped by Trump last year to be administrator of the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS), Oz has built a reputation as a steady voice in the administration’s sprawling health apparatus. He has also taken a leading role in negotiating lower drug prices. But experts have questioned his claims that there are many billions of dollars in fraudulent spending to slash, warning the effort may be aimed at cutting federal spending even when not warranted.

“There is fraud against Medicaid, and we need to get on it. But I don’t believe it’s ‘rampant.’ I don’t believe it’s ‘staggering,’ and I don’t think there’s any evidence for that,” said Andy Schneider, a research professor at Georgetown University and former CMS senior adviser. Oz argues his efforts are aimed at strengthening the programs. “CMS is focused on protecting patients, safeguarding taxpayer dollars, and making sure these programs are there for the people they were designed to serve,” he told CNN.

Oz estimates that fraud, waste, and abuse in Medicare, Medicaid, the Affordable Care Act, and the Children’s Health Insurance Program total $100 billion. His efforts largely focus on areas that have seen large increases in billing or in provider participation. He has sent adversarial letters to governors demanding information, announced that CMS has asked all 50 states to submit plans to revalidate high-risk Medicaid providers, and temporarily withheld hundreds of millions in federal matching funds from Minnesota until the state can prove its providers are not fraudulent.

Other high-profile targets have included social adult daycare and home-care programs in New York and California’s hospice and home-care services. In one action-packed video, Oz narrates a SWAT team raid against a California couple charged with billing for services they did not provide. “That stops today,” Oz says.

Prosecutions give some indication of the problem: Medicaid Fraud Control Units recovered $1.2 billion in criminal fraud convictions in fiscal year 2025. Total Medicaid spending that year was $1 trillion. The effort to use data to find billing patterns predates the Trump administration; CMS estimates it stopped $11.9 billion in potentially fraudulent Medicare payments between fiscal years 2022 and 2024.

But Oz’s tactics have met with mixed reviews. Democratic governors and policy experts say he is deliberately targeting blue states. One of his eye-popping accusations—that more than 5 million Medicaid beneficiaries in New York received personal care services—was based on a counting error. More than a month later, Oz and CMS acknowledged the actual number was about 450,000.

However, some industry groups welcome the attention. In California, the hospice association says Oz’s enforcement actions “have got teeth, and they are having real impact.” CMS has shut down federal funding for 450 hospices and home healthcare agencies in California. Conservative health policy experts say Oz is doing what CMS should do to protect the programs.

Others question whether bullying states and disrupting federal matching funds is the best method. Schneider argues the fraud focus is a way to shift attention away from sweeping healthcare cuts Republicans enacted last year. “Invoking fraud is a way to degrade [Medicaid’s] reputation,” he said. “This is part of a longer-term strategy to weaken popular support for the program.” Oz contends he loves Medicaid and wants to protect it. “If you love something, you protect it,” he said.