Trump cuts funding to Hawaii’s Medicaid fraud unit

The Trump administration is cutting off $3 million in federal funding to Hawaii’s Medicaid fraud control program after it failed to bring a single indictment or conviction over the past four years. 

In a letter sent to Hawaii Attorney General Anne Lopez, Department of Health and Human Services Inspector General March Bell said his agency would not recertify the state’s Medicaid Fraud Control Unit (MFCU), a body that investigates and prosecutes fraud by healthcare providers. 

Without a certified fraud control unit, the state’s Medicaid funding could be at risk. 

Between 2022 and 2025, the unit did not obtain a single indictment or conviction for Medicaid fraud, despite receiving about $12 million in federal taxes during that period.  

“Enough is enough,” Bell wrote in the letter. “The Hawaii MFCU for many years has not effectively carried out, and is not currently effectively carrying out, its statutory fraud-fighting functions and requirements.”  

At the same........

© The Hill