📷 New York Post MetroDr. Oz confronts NYC senior care centers over suspected Medicaid fraud as 80-plus facilities put on notice
“The bills are much higher than they should be,” Oz said.
Authorities hit more than 80 Big Apple senior centers — including two who got a visit from Dr. Mehmet Oz himself — warning that they suspect Medicaid fraud scams in a massive crackdown targeting New York and nine other states.
The federal and state sweep Tuesday included raids on Brooklyn and Queens centers, where authorities reported potentially shady billing for games of mahjong, phony wheelchair transport and nonexistent clients, according to a report.
"The whole experience was suspicious," Oz, who heads the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, told Fox News Digital , which accompanied him and senior federal health officials at Kent Senior Care and Evergreen Adult Day Care in Flushing.
"We know from the billing here that there's no way this business is running in the way that they can claim to be running without something being wrong,” he said.
"Is it an innocent mistake? A hundred times in a row? I don't think so."
The widespread crackdown — which also included raids on at least two Brooklyn adult day cares , The Post reported — was the latest action by local, state and federal authorities to beef up oversight of such programs.
Adult day care centers are designed to provide seniors with structured activities, including meals, recreation and social support, with Medicaid reimbursements funding eligible programs.
But federal authorities have raised questions about billing practices in New York and other states.
Oz has even suggested that scammers connected to the “Chinese mafia” may be paying seniors $1,000 to $1,200 to take part in a phony billing scheme, but did not provide specifics.
The widespread Tuesday raids involved several agencies, including the FBI, the Department of Health and Human Services Office of Inspector General and the NYPD.
Oz grilled the directors at the Flushing facilities, handing out letters alerting staff that their billing practices were under scrutiny by the feds, according to Fox Digital.
“The bills are much higher than they should be,” Oz told the director of Kent Senior Care. “The billing is for more people. It doesn’t look very crowded here."
The facility has a capacity of 70, and the director claimed that more clients would flood in later in the day — but Oz was skeptical.
“The bills we’re getting are as though it’s completely full all the time," he said. "You're getting this letter from the US government because we don't believe you."
Oz also questioned why the center’s billing records appeared to reflect seniors attending five days a week when the director acknowledged that many typically attended only two or three days.
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