President Donald Trump’s Medicare and Medicaid administrator, Dr. Oz, took to X on Monday to take credit for efforts against health care fraud in California — but was quickly shot down by Gov. Gavin Newsom.
“If you thought the fraud was out of control in Minnesota, wait until you learn about what’s happening in California,” wrote Oz, a former thoracic surgeon and controversial former daytime television host.
He then explained there had been widespread fraudulent payments to hospice care facilities in the state, including fake invoices to the government and the systematic enrollment of patients who weren’t terminally ill. He bragged about crackdown work he was doing alongside Trump’s local U.S. attorney, Bill Essayli, a former California state legislator who recently raised alarms by claiming law enforcement can shoot any armed person who comes near them.
Newsom, however, begged to differ with the narrative Oz was pushing.
“UNBELIEVABLE. Dr. Oz is taking a victory lap for anti-fraud work that was already underway BEFORE Trump even took office,” wrote Newsom. “California cracked down years ago — Governor Gavin Newsom signed a law BANNING all new hospice licenses in 2021 to curb fraud. What’s Trump doing? Making it easier for scammers to steal taxpayer dollars!”
Newsom linked to a report from last March on how the Trump administration blocked a move by the Biden administration to order noncompliant hospice facilities to institute reforms or lose Medicare funding.
This comes as Newsom, often speculated as a 2028 presidential contender, has stepped up his game on both social media and online interviews in an effort to counter what he considers MAGA misinformation about his state.
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