{"id":566756,"date":"2026-02-04T23:28:16","date_gmt":"2026-02-04T23:28:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/566756\/"},"modified":"2026-02-04T23:28:16","modified_gmt":"2026-02-04T23:28:16","slug":"massive-fraud-in-new-yorks-runaway-medicaid-spending-pols","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/566756\/","title":{"rendered":"‘Massive fraud’ in New York’s runaway Medicaid spending: pols"},"content":{"rendered":"

After billions in Medicaid money was stolen by fraudsters in Minnesota, all eyes are on New York \u2014 where spending on health programs is set to top $115 billion<\/a> in 2026.<\/p>\n

Although New York spends more on Medicaid than Florida and Texas \u2014 both with much higher populations \u2014 there is no public oversight of where all the money goes.<\/p>\n

This has prompted calls for a statewide audit, which Democrat Gov. Kathy Hochul has resisted.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is not hard to figure out. When there\u2019s this much money, it\u2019s going into somebody\u2019s pockets,\u201d New York State Senate Minority Leader Rob Ortt, who has sent unanswered letters to Hochul demanding an audit, told The Post.<\/p>\n

Democrat Gov. Kathy Hochul has overseen an explosive rise in Medicaid spending, which began under her predecessor Andrew Cuomo. The state will spend a gobsmacking $115B on the program this year. Lev Radin\/Shutterstock<\/p>\n

FBI agents load boxes into a vehicle taken from an alleged Medicaid fraud site in Minnesota. Star Tribune via Getty Images<\/p>\n

\u201cThere are people who do not want that information out there, or the audit done. It will lead to people losing money, right? The gravy train might end. It might even lead to prosecutions.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe idea that New York State does not [audit] the single largest program in the budget is a real slap in the face.<\/p>\n

Hinting at what lies below the surface, The Post recently uncovered how the state lost $1.2 billion of taxpayer money to scammers and middlemen<\/a> through the Consumer Directed Personal Assistance Program (CDPAP) and how it spends up to $400 million a year on Social Adult Day Care centers<\/a>, which mostly duplicate the offerings of senior centers.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey are not telling people where their tax dollars are being spent [and] I don\u2019t think they care. Because if they cared, they would do something to address this,\u201d New York State Senate Minority Leader Rob Ortt told The Post. Hans Pennink<\/p>\n

Ortt has sent unanswered letters to Gov. Hochul demanding an audit of Medicaid spending. Hans Pennink<\/p>\n

Unlike Minnesota<\/a>, which publishes a database of every Medicaid check written, New York keeps its numbers shrouded in secrecy.<\/p>\n

Minnesota was moved to transparency after receiving a D+ grade for government accountability and transparency from the Center for Public Integrity in 2012.<\/p>\n

Since 2015, state run TransparencyMN has published details of every Medicaid dollar going to vendors. In a few clicks lawmakers, journalists, and everyday citizens can see publicly how much of their money is going to anyone receiving Medicaid reimbursements, from doctors and hospitals to daycares and transportation services.<\/p>\n

That\u2019s one way local activists, reporters, and YouTube personalities have been able to expose alleged widespread fraud in Minneapolis\u2019s Somali community.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt comes down to [Gov. Hochul]. The governor is the person who, if this is going to be initiated, that\u2019s where it has to come from.\u00a0 And\u00a0we sent our letter to her and we did not get a response,\u201d Ortt said. Andrew Schwartz \/ SplashNews.com<\/p>\n

Frank T. Walsh, the Acting Medicaid Inspector General for New York, is charged with finding fraud but lawmakers said it\u2019s a \u201cwhack-a-mole\u201d operation that barely scratches the surface of the fraud they suspect is occurring in New York. Office of the Medicaid Inspector General<\/p>\n

New York has no such tool to see where $115 billion \u2014 the projected Medicaid spend for 2026 according to the State Comptroller\u2019s Office \u2014 of taxpayers\u2019 money goes.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat\u2019s happening with Medicaid fraud in New York State makes what happened in Minnesota look like child\u2019s play,\u201d state senator George Borrello, who represents the 57th district bordering Buffalo<\/a> and has joined the campaign for an audit, told The Post.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe fraud in Medicaid in New York State\u00a0is so massive, it dwarfs anything we\u2019re seeing anywhere else in the country,\u201d he claimed.<\/p>\n

Prosecutions are rare but often staggering, such as that of Zakia Khan, convicted last year of conspiring to defraud Medicaid of approximately $68 million through the payment of kickbacks and bribes.<\/a><\/p>\n

New York spends more per person on Medicaid than any other state\u2013far surpassing Texas and Florida despite having a smaller population. <\/p>\n

A screenshot of Minnesota\u2019s user-friendly TransparencyMN website showing 2022 Medicaid payments to three vendors accused of Medicaid fraud. <\/p>\n

Meanwhile, in June last year 25 transportation companies were fined $13 million<\/a> for schemes to steal millions of dollars from Medicaid.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt comes down to the governor. If this is going to be initiated, that\u2019s where it has to come from.\u00a0And\u00a0we sent our letter to her and we did not get a response,\u201d Ortt said of a bipartisan effort to conduct an independent audit.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere\u2019s a lot of people over the years who don\u2019t want these resources available because, let\u2019s be honest, there\u2019s people who are knowingly abusing this system\u00a0and are benefiting from it. Period. End of story,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n

New York has proved user-friendly transparency is possible. The state has a nearly identical tool as Minnesota for tracking state payments \u2014 Open Book New York<\/a> \u2014 but Medicaid payments are conspicuously absent.<\/p>\n

New York State Senator George Borrello, pictured here in 2024, told The Post: \u201cThe fraud in Medicaid in New York State\u00a0is so massive, it dwarfs anything we\u2019re seeing anywhere else in the country and no one has been investigated,\u201d Gregory P. Mango<\/p>\n

Borello has joined the bipartisan call for an independent audit of New York\u2019s Medicaid spending, which is expected to be up to $115 billion this year, from $95 billion in 2025. Senator George Borrello<\/p>\n

The Department of Health, which oversees Medicaid, refuses to provide any figures, citing privacy concerns. This leaves taxpayers and watchdog groups only able to access the information, which is compiled by the state and they have a legal right to, if they jump through complex legal hoops.<\/p>\n

The governor\u2019s office did not address issues of transparency to The Post, but said the Office of the Medicaid Inspector General claimed \u201cmore than $4.5 billion in cost savings and recoveries\u201d in 2024.<\/p>\n

The office also pointed to Hochul\u2019s reform of the CDPAP scheme, which it claims has saved taxpayers \u201cover $1 billion in the last year,\u201d despite costing $12 billion to run in 2025, per Human Services Secretary<\/a>\u00a0Robert F. Kennedy, Jr.<\/p>\n

Sam Spokony,\u00a0spokesperson for the governor, also pointed out Senators Ortt and Borello had signed a letter opposing the CDPAP reforms in 2024.<\/p>\n

New York spends the most Medicaid money per patient than any other state and 77 percent more than the national average. Florida and Texas, both more populous than New York, dolls out a fraction of what the Empire State spends. Andrew Schwartz \/ SplashNews.com<\/p>\n

Joe Thompson, first assistant to the US attorney, speaks at a press conference on Medicaid fraud on Dec. 18, 2025 in Minneapolis. Andrew Schwartz \/ SplashNews.com<\/p>\n

Since the mid-2010s New York\u2019s Medicaid spending has ballooned from $50 billion a year to reach a gob-smacking $96 billion in 2025.<\/p>\n

New York spends 77 percent more than the national average, with spending per patient almost double the second-most costly state, Kentucky.<\/p>\n

Texas and Florida spend a fraction of what New York does on Medicaid: $51 billion and $35 billion in 2024, respectively.<\/p>\n

Florida and Texas both have laws giving public access to figures on Medicaid-related spending.<\/p>\n

In New York Medicaid <\/a>inspector general Frank T. Walsh, is charged with sniffing out Medicaid fraud. Lawmakers who spoke to The Post called his efforts a \u201cwhack-a-mole\u201d operation.<\/p>\n

\u201cI guess they\u2019re doing what they can, but you need a comprehensive review. They are not telling people where their tax dollars are being spent [and] I don\u2019t think they care.<\/p>\n

\u201cBecause if they cared, they would do something to address this,\u201d said Ortt, a Republican who represents the 62nd district, which covers Niagara and Orleans counties, said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"After billions in Medicaid money was stolen by fraudsters in Minnesota, all eyes are on New York \u2014…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":566757,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[5122],"tags":[5229,820,5371,3170,5248,3663,405,403,5226,5225,5228,5227,67,586,132,5230,16235,68,1154,2969],"class_list":["post-566756","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-new-york","tag-america","tag-fraud","tag-kathy-hochul","tag-medicaid","tag-metro","tag-minnesota","tag-new-york","tag-new-york-city","tag-newyork","tag-newyorkcity","tag-ny","tag-nyc","tag-united-states","tag-united-states-of-america","tag-unitedstates","tag-unitedstatesofamerica","tag-upstate","tag-us","tag-us-news","tag-usa"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/116014960309083925","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/566756","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=566756"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/566756\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/566757"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=566756"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=566756"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=566756"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}