Dr. Oz Defers $91M in Minnesota Medicaid Funds

0:00It's April 30th. This is U.S. News Today, AI-powered stories from across the country. Dr. Oz, head of the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, just deferred another $91 million in Minnesota Medicaid funds. This comes after federal agents rated childcare centers and other spots in the Minneapolis St. Paul area on Tuesday. Oz says, state-run programs there are waving major red flags on fraud. Earlier this year, Vice President J.D. Vance warned Governor Tim Walls about withholding $243 million over similar issues. Minnesota sued to stop it, but a judge turned down their request for a restraining order. Now this new deferral piles on top of that hold-up. Walls is firing back, calling it a Trump administration revenge plot against his state. He dropped out of the governor's race in January to focus on fighting fraud instead. Meanwhile, the state's Human Services Department says they've been cracking down hard for over a year, recouping bad payments.

1:01Of the latest $91 million, 76 million ties to 14 high fraud risk service categories and 14 million hits program, integrity problems like payments to ineligible folks. Oz even shouted out a conservative video from December flagging fake child care ops in the Somali community. The EMS-OKed Minnesota's Fixed Plan back in March, but that original $243 million is still locked up. This bit's a bigger push, where Oz wants every state to detail their Medicaid provider checks, keeping the pressure on to clean up the waste.