Vice President JD Vance said Tuesday that a federal anti-fraud initiative has identified billions of dollars in alleged fraud across government programs in just over two months, speaking during a roundtable with attorneys general from 15 states.
The session, held in Washington, focused on what officials described as widespread abuse in federal spending programs, including pandemic-era relief funds, healthcare reimbursements, and student aid systems.
Vance said the task force has already referred more than $22 billion in what he described as fraudulent small business loans to the Treasury Department for collection. He also said investigators flagged over $1.3 billion in questionable Medicaid reimbursements tied to multiple states, with California specifically mentioned.
He added that enforcement actions included a temporary six-month pause on new hospice and home health provider enrollments. According to Vance, the measure followed findings that some newly registered providers were not delivering services as required.
“We put a six-month hold on enrollments for new hospice and home health care providers, because so many of the newer hospice providers were not actually providing hospice services, but were just focused on fraud. So, we’re going to cut that out for a little bit and try to get to a place where we can actually certify that the people providing hospice services are actually providing those very necessary and important services,” Vance said.
Vance also said the task force has worked through what he described as large-scale losses tied to COVID-era programs, including efforts to recover funds from roughly $135 billion in stolen or improperly distributed aid after emergency relief systems were expanded.
Additional figures cited by Vance included $6.3 billion in suspected fraudulent government contracts, many of which he said were issued under the previous administration, as well as $60 million in blocked student aid fraud intended for education assistance programs.
He said the effort has focused on protecting both taxpayers and legitimate beneficiaries of federal programs.
He said the theme of the task force’s work has been “that we’re protecting two classes of victims here. We’re protecting the American taxpayers who shouldn’t have their money stolen by fraudsters, and of course, we’re protecting the people who need these services. Fraud is not a victimless crime.”
Before moving into a closed-door session with state attorneys general, Vance pointed to a recent indictment in Minnesota involving alleged Medicaid fraud tied to in-home care services.
He described a case in which an individual allegedly billed for services that were never provided to an elderly man who later died.
“One day before he died, after months of being neglected by the caretaker who was getting reimbursed by the American people, one day before he died, he submitted his final reimbursement for services he never provided for a man he never cared for.”
Vance added: “That man lived his final moments on this earth neglected, while a fraudster got rich by providing services he never actually provided. That’s what we’re trying to stop.”
