California’s Fraud “Epicenter” & Guthrie Search Continues | 2.4.26

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Morning Wire 17 min 8 speakers 6 chapters transcribed
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What allegations of healthcare fraud is California facing?

John Bickley 0:04
The Trump administration is cracking down on California, tying billions in alleged Medicare fraud to crime networks in the state.
Dr. Mehmet Oz 0:11
What we've really witnessed is a weaponization of this criminal effort that has been tolerated. And the key question we should all be asking ourselves is why?
Georgia Howe 0:20
How are state officials reacting?

How are state officials responding to the healthcare fraud claims?

John Bickley 0:21
I'm Daily Wire executive editor John Bickley with Georgia Howe. It's Wednesday, February 4th. This is Morning Wire.
Georgia Howe 0:34
The frantic search for Nancy Guthrie continues amid fears she was abducted from her Arizona home.
Christopher Nanios 0:41
We do believe that Nancy was taken from her home against her will, and that's where we're at.
John Bickley 0:48
And a Daily Wire investigation leads to a guilty plea on bribery charges and calls to shut down a federal aid agency. Because as he put it, it's trash. And as he put it, it's a corrupt culture of waste, fraud, and abuse.
Georgia Howe 1:02
Thanks for waking up with Morning Wire. Stay tuned. We have the news you need to know.
John Bickley 1:08
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Georgia Howe 2:13
CMS Administrator Dr. Mehmet Oz says Los Angeles County has become an epicenter for healthcare fraud, sparking a battle with California Governor Gavin Newsom.
John Bickley 2:23
Here with the details is Daily Wire reporter Amanda Presta-Giacomo. Morning, Amanda. So let's start with these allegations of fraud, billions of dollars we're talking about here. What is going on in California?
Unknown 2:34
So Oz says they've identified billions of dollars in Medicare and Medicaid fraud in California, and this is largely tied to claims of hospice and home care fraud.

What details are emerging about Nancy Guthrie's disappearance?

Unknown 2:44
Basically, scammers are signing up people for hospice care when it's unnecessary or they don't actually provide it. When it comes to home care scams, Fraudsters are billing the government for services like grocery shopping, cooking and cleaning when these aren't being provided. In California, the government will actually foot the bill for these types of services for the elderly or the needy and says that this is being exploited by fraudsters in a very big way in the state. Now, as we recently saw with the multibillion-dollar fraud schemes in Minnesota, there appears to be a lot of coordination in L.A. County specifically, essentially organized crime, to pull off these scams on taxpayers.

What evidence suggests that Nancy Guthrie may have been abducted?

Unknown 3:22
Oz has suggested that this is largely tied to the Russian-Armenian mafia. We were able to speak to Dr. Oz yesterday. Here's how he described the fraud in L.A. and in California more generally.
Dr. Mehmet Oz 3:35
Give you a number, it's gonna chill you. We have about one in $10 spent in America in home healthcare, just in Los Angeles. So other home healthcare systems around the country, they're all suffering because the money gets pulled. So we began to notice, this is before I came into the administration, but that there was an increase, about a seven-fold increase in the available hospice in California.

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