Dr Oz says 800 hospice providers suspended in California over alleged $1B Medicare fraud scheme

Dr. Mehmet Oz says federal officials have suspended 800 hospice and home health providers in California after uncovering what the Trump administration describes as a massive Medicare fraud scheme tied to foreign-linked criminal networks that allegedly siphoned more than $1 billion from taxpayers.

"These bad people — if they’re willing to steal your money, they will happily steal your health," Oz told "My View with Lara Trump."

"They will throw your life in the gutter, and we’ve witnessed it," he said.

Oz currently serves as the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services Administrator under HHS Secretary Robert Kennedy, Jr., and President Donald Trump. 

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Vice President Vance and CMS Administrator Dr. Oz tackle fraud in areas such as Medicaid, hospices, and durable medical equipment suppliers. (Oliver Contreras/AFP via Getty Images)

Oz described the alleged perpetrators as "weaponized, professional hoodlums" exploiting weaknesses in the nation’s healthcare system, warning that fraudulent providers are endangering vulnerable patients while draining taxpayer-funded programs.

Oz singled out Los Angeles as a major hotspot, claiming the city alone accounts for nearly one-third of all hospice providers nationwide, a concentration he called "not rational."

"We're shutting down, we believe, half of them because we don't think they're legitimately helping people..." he said.

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Vice President JD Vance hosted the first meeting of The Task Force To Eliminate Fraud on March 27. The task force has suspended hundreds of hospices suspected of fraud in Los Angeles alone. (Shawn Thew/EPA/Bloomberg via Getty Images)

"The massive system we have built to provide appropriate healthcare services in America is being defrauded at levels that no one thought imaginable," he added.

"If we could take out the fraud, waste and abuse, we would double the life expectancy of the Medicare Trust Fund. It would be there twice as long for you as it will be now... just by taking the fraud out, not increasing your taxes, not throwing money at it from the government... but actually stopping bad people from corrupting the system," he said.

Oz said the administration has also deferred more than one billion dollars in federal payments for the last quarter of audits, as scrutiny surrounding the alleged widespread abuse intensifies.

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He also noted concerns from other U.S. states, including New York, Maine and Florida, but emphasized the willingness of the DeSantis administration to help root out the problem in Florida.