At the Tuesday, Oct. 20 Oval Office fraud event, CMS chief Mehmet Oz said California's personal-care approvals grew 24% over three years, double other states. He said HHS will defer (hold back pending review) another $1.2 billion in federal Medicaid payments. He presented no specific fraud evidence, the New York Post reports, and CMS has not published the numbers behind the 24%. This comes on top of $1.3 billion withheld in May over alleged hospice and in-home care fraud.
- Scale: the $2.5 billion total is about 7.4% of California's $33.9 billion In-Home Supportive Services budget and 1.9% of its federal Medi-Cal funding (Legislative Analyst's Office budget figures). About $200 million of May's $1.3 billion was unrelated to in-home care, per the state.
- The state's own count: federally eligible in-home care recipients rose 17.5% from 2022–23 to 2024–25 (613,764 to 720,988, DHCS). The LAO calls 2024–25 caseload growth of 10.3% rapid but near earlier peaks, and notes California's 65-plus population grew 29% from 2015 to 2024.
- Oz: "you're paying someone to carry groceries upstairs for your mom, which many of you would carry groceries upstairs for your mom for free."