In a not so surprising but still very infuriating video released by Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) Administrator Dr. Oz and United States Deputy Secretary of Health and Human Services Jim O’Neill, the two revealed that they had discovered another massive fraud scandal in Minnesota, this one pilfering almost half a billion dollars from taxpayers.
In this case, the fraud centered around a former linen factory that was transformed into a massive center of fraud in which 400 fake businesses pretended to do work with Medicaid, generating hundreds of millions of dollars in revenue by stealing from taxpayers, something that bizarrely wasn’t discovered until now, despite the obvious fraud.
After describing the massive center of fraud being in the linen factory, in the video the two officials released on the matter, Dr. Oz asked, “Why did no one in the state figure out this was a concern? Perplexingly to me, in a place of this nature, an industrial complex that people would not come to for child care or autism care or transportation support, how is it possible this could come up like an abscess in the heart of Minneapolis and nobody was watching?!”
Further, Oz noted that it makes no sense, as the scale and location of the scheme mean it makes no sense and should have been caught, saying, “They generated about $380 million of billing that you, the taxpayer, were putting up. That means roughly each business had a million dollars of billing,” and “It’s an industrial area. There’s no reason that you have a mother bring her child.”
Yet further, Dr. Oz noted how the location and sort of property that was involved really means someone should have caught it, as the ostensible sort of work they were doing simply would not have happened in such a place. He said, “You can’t imagine getting extra business support. An autistic child probably wouldn’t want to come here. You hear the noise. It’s just not a hospitable place.”
Further pointing to the ludicrous nature of the claimed business activity that was supposedly ongoing in a former linen factory, noting that there is no way that nearly half a billion dollars in legitimate business activity spread across hundreds of businesses in the same former industrial facility actually happened. he said, “The question is, how is it possible 400 businesses billing almost $400 million were able to thrive here?!”
Noting that fraud is the only way this possibly could have occurred, with bureaucratic insouciance toward the massive fraud providing the opening necessary for it to continue happening. The Trump officials noted, “I think it’s because they weren’t looking. They didn’t want to know that this problem was happening here.”
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He then vowed that he will crack down on this sort of fraud, which is evil not only because it is theft from taxpayers, but because it is theft from those who needed it the most. They said, “We’re here to figure out why these folks are being defrauded. Why the people who live in Minnesota aren’t getting access to the care they deserve because it’s been stolen.”
Watch them here:
Featured image credit: screengrab from the embedded video