Fed requires states to audit health care providers

WASHINGTON – The Trump administration will ask states to create new plans to verify health care workers paid by federally funded health programs as part of a broader effort to combat fraud in government programs, Mehmet Oz, administrator of the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, said Tuesday.

Oz told Politico’s Health Summit that his administration will ask states within the next month to develop plans to re-examine health care providers in “high-risk” areas and determine whether they exist and have the right to provide services.

The announcement is another step in the administration’s aggressive and highly publicized attack on alleged waste, fraud, and abuse in federal health care programs. The administration has primarily targeted specific programs and providers in Democratic-led states such as Minnesota and California, although state leaders have sometimes disputed the administration’s claims.

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