California and Minnesota can regain access if they document claims flagged as suspicious, HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and CMS Administrator Mehmet Oz said Tuesday.
The Trump administration has frozen more than $1 billion in Medicaid funding to California and Minnesota as part of what officials described as an anti-fraud effort. Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. said Tuesday that more than $867 million was withheld from California and more than $200 million from Minnesota. Robert F. Kennedy Jr. said the states can recover the money by providing documentary proof that the payments were legitimate, while Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services Administrator Mehmet Oz said Minnesota's issues were tied to 14 high-risk programs and California's involved in-home services spending, delayed billing and overlapping claims. Officials said the review used artificial intelligence, advanced analytics and traditional financial verification, and Kennedy also announced an expansion of the Department of Health and Human Services' exclusion authority to target actors suspected of fraud.