Dr. Oz on Waste, Fraud and Abuse at CMS
April 25, 2025 · CMSHHSgov · 0:01:35
Embedded from the source channel — never re-uploaded. Watch on YouTube
What happened
In remarks published by CMS on April 25, 2025 — three weeks after he took office — Dr. Oz said the agency had already discovered “tens of billions of dollars” of fraud since the inauguration, and had recently stopped a couple of hundred million dollars from going out the door. He cited $31 million stopped the previous week as an example, saying CMS blocked the money “by using new technology, by modernizing how Medicare and Medicaid works,” because the bills looked suspicious.
Oz characterized the schemes as organized criminal efforts, some of them, he said, launched by foreign countries, rather than billing mistakes. He appealed for public tips — “if you see something, say something” — directing viewers to 1-800-HHS-TIPS and cms.gov/fraud, and noted the affected programs were designed for poor children, pregnant women, and other vulnerable people.
Why it matters
These are among Oz’s earliest on-the-record fraud figures as administrator, delivered before the fraud task force announcements of 2026 gave the campaign its formal structure. The claims — tens of billions identified, hundreds of millions stopped — are the baseline numbers against which the campaign’s later, larger announcements can be compared.
Scoreboard watch
Candidate item: Oz’s April 2025 fraud figures are administration claims the scoreboard can revisit as CMS publishes audited recoveries and enforcement outcomes over time.
Sources: CMSHHSgov (CMS official channel), “CMS Administrator Dr. Oz on Waste, Fraud & Abuse,” April 25, 2025 (official upload, embedded above). Figures attributed to Dr. Oz as stated.
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