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This initiative is part of Vance’s task force on health scams.
This suspension will give the government time to thoroughly review the accounts.
The fight against fraud began in Minnesota.
(Adding official announcement details to paragraphs 1-2 and 4-9) by Jody Godoy and Courtney Rozen
The Trump administration will prevent new home and palliative care providers from enrolling in Medicare for at least the next six months, according to a government statement released on Wednesday, citing concerns about widespread fraud.
This moratorium will temporarily prevent new providers in these categories from enrolling for Medicare reimbursement, a government health insurance program for Americans aged 65 and older and disabled individuals. It will not impact providers already enrolled in Medicare, according to the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services, which oversee the program.
This is the latest action taken by Vice President JD Vance’s anti-fraud task force aimed at combating scams in the healthcare sector.
The U.S. government has been trying for years to combat fraudulent payments made by Medicare to palliative and home care providers.
Fraudsters can bill Medicare for palliative or home care services that the patient neither needs nor wants, allowing them to pocket millions of dollars from the U.S. government. The national fraud prevention group, Senior Medicare Patrol, has issued several alerts on this issue.
CMS has previously suspended enrollments in certain counties when its staff suspected fraud, notably in 2013 when access for new providers was banned in Miami-Dade County, Florida.
“This is to protect patients, restore integrity, and preserve taxpayer money,” said Mehmet Oz, CMS administrator, in a statement.
Reuters was the first to report on this suspension. This moratorium will give CMS time to account for expenses related to palliative and home care under the Medicare program and develop additional guidelines, said an administration official.
The Trump administration has been criticized for prioritizing the president’s political preferences over agency efforts to eliminate fraud in public payments. The administration has pointed fingers at some states led by Democrats, including California and Minnesota, accusing them of not doing enough to combat fraud. But it has also increased surveillance on palliative care in Georgia and Ohio last year, two states led by Republicans.
DIFFERENT APPROACHES IN THE SECTOR
In 2024, 1.8 million Medicare beneficiaries received palliative care costing $28.3 billion, according to the Medicare Payment Advisory Commission. That same year, 2.7 million Medicare patients received home care costing $16 billion, according to the agency advising Congress on healthcare spending.
Vance’s task force has recently taken action against palliative care services, especially in California, where the state auditor declared in 2022 that lax oversight had allowed widespread fraud.
Professional groups advocated for different approaches as the Trump administration assessed measures to take.
The National Partnership for Healthcare and Hospice Innovation stated in March that it supported the temporary suspension of palliative care provider enrollments. The National Alliance for Care at Home warned against overly broad measures that could discourage doctors and patients from recommending or seeking care.
Key home care operators in the U.S. include BrightSpring Health Services, Matrix Medical Network, backed by private equity funds, and UnitedHealth Group. VITAS Healthcare, a subsidiary of Chemed Corporation, is among the major palliative care providers.
STRENGTHENING FRAUD FIGHT
According to the National Health Care Anti-Fraud Association, fraud in the healthcare sector results in estimated losses of tens of billions of dollars each year in the United States, leading to increased costs for patients and employers.
The administration of President Donald Trump also sought to address other healthcare sectors deemed at risk of fraud. In February, the administration suspended Medicare enrollments for providers of durable medical equipment, such as prosthetics.
The fight against fraud began in Minnesota, where the Trump administration announced in February that it would withhold $259 million in funds earmarked for Medicaid, the federal and state program for low-income Americans.
Trump has repeatedly cited a scandal in Minnesota in 2020, where 47 people were accused of diverting $250 million from a state-funded, federally-financed child nutrition program. According to local media, many of those accused in this case were Somali Americans.
This controversy prompted Trump earlier this year to deploy thousands of immigration agents as part of a crackdown on migrants. He adopted a less aggressive approach after federal agents shot and killed two people protesting against his policies.
When announcing the creation of the fraud task force in March, Trump, without providing evidence, claimed that fraud allegations were more prevalent in Democratic-led states than in Republican-led ones.
