Medicaid is now the fastest-growing expense for most states, oftentimes crowding out funding for education and social services.

CMS Administrator Dr. Mehmet Oz drew attention to this during a talk this week at Sanford Health ’s Annual Summit on the Future of Rural Health Care in Sioux Falls, South Dakota.

He noted that federal Medicaid spending has increased by 50% over the past five years, with much of this being tied to pandemic-era policies that weren’t rolled back. From Dr. Oz’s perspective, this presents opportunities for states and providers to “game” the system.

“Certainly the legalized money laundering from state-directed payments and provider taxes, no matter what you might think about them, don’t align with the federal government and with state governments. They do quite

See Full Page