On March 3, Dr. Mehmet Oz, the administrator of the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services, posted a video accusing New York state of running a fraud-ridden Medicaid program.

He claimed that 5 million beneficiaries, nearly 3 out of 4 enrollees, had received personal care services. The actual number is closer to 450,000. His figure was off by a factor of more than 10. The Trump administration acknowledged the error on April 10.

This was not an isolated mistake.

In January, Oz declared Minnesota's Medicaid program was in "substantial noncompliance" with federal fraud requirements. CMS deferred $259.5 million and threatened to withhold more than $2 billion, roughly 18% of the state's federal Medicaid funding the prior year.

That was the first time in the program's 60-year history that the federal government used this lever against a state.

CMS cited no current audit results. The three audits referenced were from five years ago or more. Minnesota filed a federal lawsuit accusing the administration of weaponizing Medicaid as "political punishment.”

The people being targeted by these claims are not fraudsters. The personal care services Oz attacked in New York are the clinical alternative to nursing home placement. Recipients have clinical acuity scores that qualify them for institutional care. These scores qualify or disqualify them for care.

These are people who need help bathing, dressing, eating and transferring from a bed to a........

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