Federal, state and city investigators searched about a dozen adult day care centers in New York City on Tuesday, focused in part on operators who they believe fraudulently billed Medicaid for clients who received no services or were dead, three people with knowledge of the matter said.
The searches came as the Trump administration is focusing on investigating accusations of fraud at adult and child day care centers, often underscoring what it says is wrongdoing in Democratic-controlled states. Dr. Mehmet Oz, the director of the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, was with investigators at one or more of the search locations on Tuesday, according to two of the people, who were granted anonymity to discuss a law enforcement matter.
The searches were part of a sweeping federal and state crackdown on allegations of fraud at adult day care centers, the people said. Federal, state and local investigators on Tuesday also visited other centers in the city, issuing legal notices that one person with knowledge of the matter said were similar to cease-and-desist letters.
The New York F.B.I. office confirmed the actions in a statement, saying that it was “conducting law enforcement activity” with other agencies in Queens and Brooklyn and on Staten Island in connection with ongoing federal investigations.
The actions on Tuesday stemmed from two investigations that began separately but ended up joined together in some measure.
One was part of the federal crackdown, which in addition to the F.B.I., involves the Internal Revenue Service, the Department of Health and Human Services and several New York State agencies, along with the New York Police Department.
The other was conducted by the office of the Staten Island district attorney, Michael E. McMahon, and focused on a single adult day care operation run by three members of a family, two of the people said. Mr. McMahon, along with federal and state officials, is expected to announce charges stemming from that inquiry at a news conference on Thursday on Staten Island.
Prosecutors are expected to accuse the Staten Island center’s operators of fraudulently billing Medicaid for hundreds of thousands of dollars for services to clients who were either dead or did not attend the center, the people said.
In a news release, Gov. Kathy Hochul’s office said that the state was working with federal authorities in the broader crackdown. Its efforts were part of a monthslong investigation into the state’s troubled Social Adult Day Care program, known as SADC. It investigated allegations of fraud at more than 100 adult day care centers across New York, according to the release.
There were 373 social adult day care centers operating in New York in November 2025, according to a report by the city’s Department for the Aging.
Adult day care centers provide “functionally impaired” older adults with personal care, supervision and socialization, according to the state comptroller’s website, and are funded in part through Medicaid.
They have also become vectors for fraud, according to federal and state officials.
In July, a Brooklyn man was sentenced to nearly six years in prison after being convicted of fraudulently billing Medicaid for more than $3 million. In September, another owner of a Brooklyn adult day care center was sentenced to more than six years for defrauding Medicaid of more than $60 million.
In February, Thomas P. DiNapoli, the state comptroller, announced that an audit of the centers had found some evidence of providers “abusing the system and committing fraud.”
The audit found that there were “weaknesses” in the State Department of Health’s oversight of the SADC program.
The broader federal inquiry
is at its earliest stages and has not been assigned to a U.S. attorney’s office. Officials are expected to hold a news conference on that inquiry on Thursday in Washington.
The searches in New York follow a concerted effort by the Justice Department to prosecute Medicaid fraud in Minnesota, which President Trump focused on after reports of widespread fraud and a viral social video from the conservative influencer Nick Shirley last year.
The administration cited fraud in Minnesota’s social services programs as a reason for its aggressive crackdown on illegal immigration in the state.
In July, Dr. Oz visited adult day care centers in Queens with Mr. Shirley in what appeared to be an effort to replicate Mr. Shirley’s viral success. Walking down a street in the Flushing neighborhood, Dr. Oz called social adult day care centers “the biggest fraud you’ve never heard of.”
Though Tuesday’s searches reflected cooperation between New York and federal officials, Ms. Hochul’s administration has already faced scrutiny from the Trump administration over its handling of state health programs.
In June, the Justice Department sued the New York State Health Department, accusing officials of failing to monitor the company that operated the state’s $11 billion home health care program.
The failure, according to the Justice Department, led to the vendor’s siphoning off millions of dollars in funds from the state’s Consumer Directed Personal Assistant Program, much of which is reimbursed through Medicaid.
Ms. Hochul’s office has called the suit politically motivated.
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