Oz alleges Maine 'looks a lot like Minnesota' regarding entitlement fraud

[BumRushDaShow]

Source: The Hill

02/08/26 7:00 AM ET


The Trump administration’s top Medicare official has suggested that alleged fraud in Maine’s social services programs may be on par with the welfare fraud scandal in Minnesota. Centers for Medicare and Medicaid (CMS) Administrator Mehmet Oz said there is “another big crisis” concerning alleged social services fraud in Maine during an appearance on John Catsimatidis’s “The Cats Roundtable” radio show. “It turns out that Maine looks a lot like Minnesota,” Oz said in the interview, which aired Sunday morning.

Maine Republican legislators raised alarm bells after a whistleblower alleged late last year that millions of dollars had been defrauded from the state’s Medicaid program. State Sen. Matt Harrington (R) has demanded an investigation into the matter, calling it “an absolute slap in the face to every Maine taxpayer” in an interview last December with NewsNation. The allegations are similar to an investigation into alleged fraud in Minnesota, in which federal investigators estimate fraudsters funneled $1 billion in funding allocated for social services programs.

The Trump administration has pinned these fraud operations on the state’s Somali community and cited this alleged connection as the reason behind the Department of Homeland Security’s (DHS) highly controversial immigration crackdown efforts in Minnesota. Oz alleged that the Maine fraud case is also connected to the state’s Somali population, and he said he’s sent a letter to Maine Gov. Janet Mills (D) about these concerns.

The CMS administrator’s comments come after a federal immigration enforcement operation in the state. Last month, Sen. Susan Collins (R-Maine) announced that DHS Secretary Kristi Noem had agreed to end “enhanced activities” in Maine. Mills has persistently rejected the Trump administration’s immigration crackdown activities across the country, demanding congressional oversight into these operations in a post on the social platform X at the end of January.

Read more: https://thehill.com/homenews/state-watch/5728249-trump-oz-allege-maine-fraud/