By Tami Luhby, CNN
(CNN) — The Trump administration is doubling down on its fraud-fighting crusade as it seeks to show Americans that it is an attentive steward of taxpayer funds ahead of November’s midterm election.
Vice President JD Vance is set to highlight his anti-fraud task force’s efforts in Maine on Thursday, just a day after he and other top officials unveiled multiple measures aimed at combatting fraud in Medicare and Medicaid. Maine’s Senate race, where GOP Sen. Susan Collins is running for a sixth term, is expected to be among the most competitive contests this year.
“We want to protect Medicaid. We want to protect Medicare,” Vance said at an event on the White House campus. “But we can’t do that if the states that are administering those programs are allowing those programs to be fleeced by fraudsters.”
President Donald Trump’s fixation on fraud in federal benefit programs has been met with mixed reactions. Some experts say he and his team are exaggerating the amount of fraud that exists, while others say they are underestimating it. The administration’s tactics have similarly garnered both criticism — particularly for the harsh words and actions toward Democratic-led states — and praise for finally tackling a longstanding issue in the federal government.
One of Trump’s key fraud fighters, Dr. Mehmet Oz, has called out alleged fraud involving Maine’s Medicaid-funded treatment program for children with autism, hospice and home care providers in California, social adult day care centers in New York and durable medical equipment companies in Florida, among other schemes. Oz leads the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, which administers several programs at high risk for fraud.
One problem is that no comprehensive data exists to show just how pervasive fraud is in safety net programs, although prosecutions against criminals who steal millions of dollars are common. Last year, the Justice Department announced it had charged 324 defendants for their alleged participation in more than $14.6 billion in healthcare-related fraud schemes, more than double the previous record.
The Government Accountability Office estimated in 2024 that between $233 billion and $521 billion in federal money could be lost annually to fraud in a first-of-its-kind government-wide estimate. That represents 3% to 7% of average federal obligations, though GAO noted the level of risk can vary substantially by agency and program.
Relatedly, the federal government also made about $186 billion in improper payments across 64 programs in fiscal year 2025, according to GAO’s review of a small subset of federal programs. But not all improper payments are fraudulent — some may be due to administrative errors.
Improper payments have totaled $3 trillion since fiscal year 2003, according to GAO’s estimates, though it notes that the actual amount could be “significantly higher.”
Meanwhile, Oz has said that fraud, waste and abuse in the federal healthcare programs his agency oversees totals $100 billion a year.
But one former senior executive in GAO’s fraud unit said that GAO’s and Oz’s fraud estimates are most likely too low.
“There’s a ton of taxpayer dollars being lost,” said Linda Miller, president of the Program Integrity Alliance, a nonprofit aimed at improving the government’s ability to fight fraud.
Organized criminal groups and other sophisticated players have become adept at stealing federal funds, ramping up during the Covid-19 pandemic and continuing afterwards.
While GAO has long highlighted the vulnerabilities in federal departments and programs, they often aren’t addressed. Concerns about costs, outdated technology, administrative burdens and privacy, along with pushback from industries and advocates, can get in the way.
“There is a lack of attention, priority, commitment and decisive action at the highest level of agencies, regardless of administration,” Seto Bagdoyan, a director on GAO’s forensic audits and investigative service team, has told CNN. He believes the fraud estimates are likely understated.
Spotlight on Medicare and Medicaid
Trump officials have alleged there is fraud in a variety of federal programs since the president took office in January 2025. Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins said 186,000 dead people’s Social Security numbers were being used to collect food stamps, while billionaire Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency claimed it needed access to sensitive Social Security databases to root out fraud.
And the administration has ramped up fraud probes into federal childcare and Medicaid funding in Minnesota.
The spotlight is now especially focused on Medicare and Medicaid, with Oz filming multiple videos in places where he claims fraud is occurring. He has sent letters to governors in several states demanding information and action plans to fight fraud. And the agency is withholding $1.3 billion in Medicaid reimbursements from California and $350 million from Minnesota until the states can justify the claims.
Several of the administration’s latest anti-fraud efforts have been national in scope. On Wednesday, the Department of Health and Human Services’ Office of Inspector General informed state attorneys general that it would review their Medicaid Fraud Control Units, which are tasked with investigating and prosecuting fraud among Medicaid providers. If states don’t step up their units’ fraud prosecutions, they could lose their federal support for the program, which totals nearly $500 million.
Meanwhile, Oz declared that he was placing a six-month nationwide moratorium on new enrollment of hospice and home health providers in Medicare. This comes after he declared a similar pause on new enrollment for certain providers of durable medical equipment, such as wheelchairs and braces.
Improper payments in Medicare and Medicaid account for just over half of the total, according to GAO’s report.
Nearly $29 billion in improper payments, or roughly 6.6% of the total, were made in traditional Medicare in fiscal year 2025, according to the latest CMS data. For Medicare Advantage, the figure was nearly $24 billion, or 6.1%.
More than 6.1% of Medicaid payments, or more than $37 billion, were improper.
While Miller said she is glad the administration is increasing attention on the issue of fraud, she disagrees with the messaging from the White House. Vance, Oz and others have criticized states, particularly those led by Democrats, as being too lax in their oversight of the programs. But previous presidents – as well as Trump during his first term – didn’t make fraud a high priority, she said.
“It’s not that states don’t care,” Miller said. “It’s that they haven’t been told by the federal government to care.”
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