Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) Administrator Dr. Mehmet Oz said fraudsters in Minnesota bribed mothers roughly $1,500 per child to falsely claim their children were autistic, saddling the children with diagnoses they did not have. Oz made the remarks at an appearance alongside President Donald Trump and Vice President JD Vance, crediting the administration’s anti-fraud task force and independent reporting for exposing the scheme. The CMS administrator framed the abuse as a theft of more than money. “Fraud doesn’t just steal our money. Fraud steals people’s lives and it also steals our trust as a nation, and that is devastating to any country,” Oz said. He said the scheme carried two victims. A child wrongly labeled autistic carries that record going forward, Oz said, while mothers of children who actually need the services are left unable to afford care.
