Authored by Lawrence Wilson via The Epoch Times,

The Trump administration will withhold $1.3 billion in Medicaid payments to California due to potentially fraudulent billing patterns, Vice President JD Vance announced on May 13.

The action comes among a host of others taken recently to crack down on fraudulent activity in Medicare and Medicaid.

“We want to protect these programs for the kids and the families who need them. We want to ensure that the American taxpayer isn’t getting fleeced,” Vance told reporters.

JUST IN: VP JD Vance announces “the federal government is deferring $1.3 BILLION dollars in Medicaid reimbursements from the state of California.”

He adds that “California has not taken fraud very seriously.” pic.twitter.com/dcyMtxqouj

— Julia 🇺🇸 (@Jules31415) May 13, 2026

Analysis of Medicaid billing patterns in California aroused suspicion, according to Dr. Mehmet Oz, administrator of the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services.

“We’ve discovered $630 million in billing from folks who are egregiously the top 5 percent of outliers in billing. These numbers are so big you can’t imagine anyone billing for these [amounts],” Oz told reporters.

California itself is an outlier among states, Oz said.

“In California, the growth of spending on personal care services is twice the rate of the average of the rest of the country,” Oz said.

“We estimate there’s $500 million that could be a risk of being taken from federal taxpayers.”

Fewer than 20 of 800 Medicare providers recently removed from the program due to suspicious billing activity have called to complain, Oz said, offering that as evidence that they likely were not legitimate providers.

VP Vance responded with a double take after hearing that wild stat from Dr. Oz:

“You’re saying that we kicked off 800 fraudulent healthcare providers off of the Medicare system and not a single one of them called the government and said, ‘hey, you made a mistake?'”

UNBELIEVABLE. Vice President Vance just did a double take after hearing this wild stat dropped by Dr. Oz:

“You’re saying that we kicked off 800 fraudulent healthcare providers off of the Medicare system and not a single one of them called the government and said, ‘hey, you made… pic.twitter.com/EaJTz1lNoA

— Andrew Kolvet (@AndrewKolvet) May 13, 2026

“It’s just completely insane,” remarked a surprised Vance!!