The Trump administration has announced a nationwide six-month freeze on any new Medicare enrollments by hospice and home health agencies, a move aimed at expanding its sweeping fraud-busting initiative in federal health programs.
The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) said in a news release that the moratoria will temporarily stop all new providers in these categories from signing up for reimbursement from Medicare, the federal insurance program for older adults across the country.
The move is related to efforts by Vice President JD Vance’s anti-fraud task force, set up by President Donald Trump to crack down on potential misuse of public funds.
It comes as people across the United States have raised concerns about rising health costs and barriers to access, sometimes from the federal government’s own actions. New work requirements in Medicaid, for example, are expected to strain hospitals around the country and result in millions of enrollees losing their health coverage.
CMS Administrator Dr. Mehmet Oz said in a statement, “We’ve seen systemic and deeply troubling fraud in the hospice and home health space, with bad actors exploiting some of our most vulnerable Medicare patients and stealing money from the American taxpayer.”
“Today we’re shutting the door on fraud-preventing new bad actors from entering Medicare while we aggressively identify, investigate, and remove those already exploiting them. This is about protecting patients, restoring integrity and safeguarding taxpayer dollars.”
CMS Administrator Dr. Mehmet Oz
Several alleged fraud schemes have been prosecuted in the hospice and home health care categories, and states have acknowledged that it is a legitimate concern. However, some have pushed back on the administration’s aggressive tactics and raised concerns that the catchall efforts could needlessly punish law-abiding providers that are trying to serve patients.
The administration contends this freeze and other actions it is taking will help prevent potential fraud in Medicaid and Medicare and preserve funding and resources for people most in need.
In recent months, CMS has suspended payments to hundreds of hospice and home care agencies in Los Angeles over alleged fraud and issued another six-month moratorium on suppliers of durable medical equipment, prosthetics, orthotics and certain other supplies in Medicare.
The administration also has approached at least five states with investigations into potential health care fraud and halted some $243 million in Medicaid payments to one of them, Minnesota, over fraud concerns.
Last month, Oz announced CMS would add to that oversight by requiring all 50 states to share how they planned to revalidate some of their Medicaid providers.
CMS To Intensify Targeted Investigations
Under the six-month pause, existing hospice and home health care providers will continue to operate as usual. Nonetheless, CMS said that it will “intensify targeted investigations, deploy advanced data analytics, and accelerate the removal” of providers in the category that are suspected of fraudulent activity.
The White House Task Force to eliminate Fraud said in a post on X that fraudulent home healthcare and hospice providers are stealing from every American taxpayer. “That’s why we’ve announced a nationwide moratorium on new certifications for six months so @CMSGov can find out how deep the fraud goes,” it added.
In another post, it said that states aren’t entitled to taxpayer money “for fraudulent Medicaid services.” “Americans shouldn’t have to pay fraudsters and states to waste your hard-earned money,” it stated, adding, “This administration and the Fraud Task Force are fighting for accountability.”
According to CMS, the goal is to use data-driven methodologies to uncover the root causes of fraudulent activity.
The temporary freeze on new hospice and home health enrollment builds upon the federal anti-task force’s efforts. Thus far, payment suspensions have been put in place among 773 hospices and 23 home health agencies suspected of fraud in Los Angeles. The operators have allegedly billed a total of roughly $70 million fraudulent dollars, CMS indicated in a statement.
Meanwhile, Tricia Neumann, a Senior Vice President and Executive Director for the program on Medicare policy at the health care research nonprofit KFF, noted that such a freeze is not unprecedented.
She said that President Bill Clinton’s Democratic administration also imposed a temporary moratorium on home health agencies. “A brief moratorium gives the administration time to crack down on true fraud and prevent new fraudulent entities from popping up,” she said.
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