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American Thought Leaders

Dr. Mehmet Oz: Up to $4 Billion in Health Care Fraud in California

American Thought Leaders

The Epoch Times

News, Politics, Government

4.91.1K Ratings

🗓️ 17 January 2026

⏱️ 40 minutes

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

“Minnesota … is just the tip of the iceberg,” says Dr. Mehmet Oz, the administrator 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.

“The magnitude of fraud there, we believe, is approximating $4 billion just in hospice and home health care,” he says.

Dr. Oz oversees programs that together constitute about one-fourth of the entire U.S. federal budget.

In this episode, he breaks down how the home health care 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.

Views expressed in this video are opinions of the host and the guest, and do not necessarily reflect the views of The Epoch Times.



Transcript

Click on a timestamp to play from that location

0:00.0

It's just the tip of the iceberg.

0:02.0

I think what we're seeing in Minnesota, which is billions of dollars of fraud,

0:05.0

that hurts our most vulnerable people,

0:07.0

it's dwarfed by what I saw in California,

0:10.0

which is whole-scale cultural malfeasance around healthcare.

0:14.0

They realized that they could pay doctors to move people in the hospice.

0:19.0

And so now they don't have access to regular Medicare anymore.

0:22.6

So people are dying because they can't get care.

0:25.7

In this episode, I'm sitting down with Dr. Megmad Oz,

0:29.2

the administrator of the Centers for Medicaid and Medicare, CMS.

0:33.3

He oversees programs that constitute a quarter of the entire U.S. federal budget.

0:38.3

They're also buying the beneficiary numbers from Medicare patients.

0:42.3

There's a market for that. The magnitude of fraud that we believe is

0:46.3

approximating $4 billion just in hospice and home health care.

0:51.3

As we near the one-year mark of the Trump administration,

0:55.0

we discussed their efforts to cut waste,

0:57.5

lower drug prices, and transform health in America.

1:00.7

For decades, Americans have been paying three times more

1:04.1

than Europeans and other developed nations.

1:06.6

If it's the same product made in the same factory,

1:08.9

often in America, it should cost the same

1:11.1

in America as it does everywhere else.

...

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