Published: Mar 31, 2025
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Medicare, the federal health insurance program for people ages 65 and older and people under 65 with long-term disabilities, covers 68 million people and represents 15% of all federal spending – nearly $1 trillion dollars in 2024. The Medicare program has more than 1.4 million providers and more than 20 different payment systems. Due to the complexity and size of the program, Medicare faces risk of improper payments and some vulnerability to fraud, waste, and abuse, though many actions have been taken over the years to reduce improper payments in the program and to root out fraud.
President Trump has established a government cost-cutting initiative known as the “Department of Government Efficiency” or DOGE, which has set about to dramatically overhaul the size and scope of federal government spending. The leader of DOGE, Elon Musk, recently claimed that “big money fraud” is happening at the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) and that “the waste and fraud in entitlement spending, which is most of the federal spending, is entitlements, so that’s the big one to eliminate.”
Strengthening program integrity and tackling fraud, waste, and abuse in Medicare, as well as in other government programs, has been a priority across prior administrations. During...
A Guatemalan national residing in the U.S. illegally has been indicted for his alleged role in smuggling a 14-year-old girl into the country. Juan Tiul Xi, 26, was indicted on Thursday for alleged...