Mehmet Oz on health-care fraud and ghost billing: warns against

Dr. Mehmet Oz warns against health-care fraud and ghost billing, making enforcement one of CMS’s top priorities. His mantra, delivered at the July 2026 Medicaid deferral announcement: “If it smells like fraud, we’re not paying for it anymore.”

Oz has backed that rhetoric with action: in September 2026, CMS barred 11 DME suppliers tied to $3.4 billion in suspected fraudulent billing — including claims for deceased beneficiaries and unrequested equipment — and earlier in the year he vowed to decertify roughly 900–1,000 suspect hospices after touring Los Angeles fraud hotspots. Oz’s stated reasoning is that fraud, waste, and abuse — which he estimates at roughly $100 billion a year — drain the system and threaten Medicare’s solvency, and that enforcement is a funding strategy, not just policing.

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