The FBI and state officials launched an operation in New York City on Oct. 20 to crack down on Medicaid fraud.
“FBI New York, along with multiple other law enforcement agencies, are conducting law enforcement activity in the area of Queens, Staten Island, Brooklyn, and other locations around New York City in connection with ongoing federal investigations,” a spokesperson for the FBI told The Epoch Times in an email.
Adult daycares are centers that offer events and services for adults, including meals, physical therapy, and transportation.
Medicaid paid about $2.4 billion for adult daycare services in New York state from January 2019 through October 2024, according to a New York State Comptroller report that found improper payments, among other issues.
The cost per enrollee in New York during that period of time was higher than average, the FBI’s New York Office said on X.
The office said there were “significant indicators of waste, abuse, and fraud” within the adult daycare sector. The agency “has joined an interagency working group dedicated to immediately disrupting and dismantling billion-dollar health care fraud schemes and the money laundering networks that enable them,” it said.
The New York State Department of Health and Office of Medicaid Inspector General joined other state and federal agencies in a coordinated crackdown on suspected fraud in social adult day care programs, New York Gov. Kathy Hochul said during an Oct. 20 press conference in New York.
Hochul called the operation a “massive effort to combat fraud and abuse.”
She also said, “We are targeting providers who we believe engaged in illegal activity, ranging from money laundering to kickbacks to improper billing and other fraudulent activities.”
The investigation is active, limiting how much additional information officials can disclose, according to the governor.
Dr. Mehmet Oz, administrator of the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services, told reporters at a separate press conference in Washington on Tuesday that he had visited a center in New York on Tuesday morning.
Oz said the operation that took place “was the largest enforcement action of its kind” and that more information would be released later in the week.
Federal officials have made combating fraud a priority, particularly fraud affecting healthcare programs such as Medicaid. It was announced earlier in the month that tens of thousands of people who were enrolled in both Affordable Care Act coverage subsidized by the government and federal programs had been removed.
