Robert F. Kennedy Jr. on fraud prosecution and program integrity: recommends

Robert F. Kennedy Jr. says HHS is “not sending Medicaid or Medicare dollars out the door until we have confidence that they are being spent lawfully,” and he supports excluding bad actors from federal health programs, per the HHS press release on the July 21, 2026 Medicaid payment deferrals.

Kennedy’s stated reasoning, as presented at the announcement, is that high-risk claims require documentation before federal dollars flow, and that program-integrity enforcement has been inadequate. On July 21, HHS deferred $867.5 million in Medicaid payments to California and $199 million to Minnesota pending review, and delegated provider-exclusion authority to CMS. Critics, including Governors Newsom and Walz, called the deferrals political retribution; Reuters noted no proof of fraud was publicly offered at the announcement.

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