Overview
- Vice President JD Vance and CMS on Wednesday announced a six-month national moratorium on new Medicare enrollment for hospice and home-health agencies and a deferral of $1.3 billion in California Medicaid reimbursements.
- California officials rejected the fraud narrative, saying rapid growth in home-based care reflects a policy to keep people out of costly nursing homes, as Gov. Gavin Newsom’s office called the move punitive and harmful to patients.
- HHS’ inspector general told state attorneys general that weak Medicaid Fraud Control Unit prosecutions could put federal support at risk, and CMS ordered states to revalidate providers using new data checks.
- CMS Administrator Mehmet Oz said investigators suspended roughly 800 Los Angeles hospice and home-health providers from federal payments as potentially fraudulent, while stressing that existing, approved providers can keep treating patients during the freeze.
- The crackdown follows earlier actions like a February pause on some durable medical equipment enrollments and a separate funding deferral to Minnesota, even as critics note CMS admitted errors in New York data and Democrats label the push political, a split reflected in coverage that ranges from praise for accountability to warnings of disrupted care and likely litigation.