Trump Administration Freezes New Medicare Hospice and Home Health Enrollments for Six Months, Cites Systemic Fraud

What Actually Happened

On Wednesday, May 13, 2026, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services announced a six-month nationwide moratorium on new Medicare enrollments for hospice providers and home health agencies.

No new licenses. No new providers. Existing providers keep operating. But the door is shut to anyone trying to get into the system.

CMS Administrator Dr. Mehmet Oz put it plainly at a White House press conference alongside Vice President JD Vance: "There will be no new hospices or home health care open in this country."

The move affects one of the most sensitive corners of American healthcare — services for the elderly and dying.

The Fraud Is Real. The Numbers Are Ugly.

The fraud problem in hospice and home health care is well-documented.

The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Office of the Inspector General reported in 2023 that suspected hospice fraud alone totaled an estimated $198.1 million, according to CBS News.

That's just the suspected fraud they could quantify. The real number is almost certainly higher.

A CBS News investigation — based on state and federal data — found that over 700 of the roughly 1,800 hospices in Los Angeles County trigger multiple red flags for fraud as defined by California state criteria. Over 700. In one county.

The Daily Wire previously reported on alleged widespread Medicare fraud in Ohio's home health industry. Ohio Medicaid officials told The Columbus Dispatch they were already investigating before those reports went public.

Vance's anti-fraud task force has already withheld $1.4 billion in federal funding from home health and hospice providers, according to Fox News. That's not a fine. That's a freeze on payments while investigations proceed.

The Pressure Campaign on States

The moratorium was not the only move Wednesday.

Vance announced the administration is deferring $1.3 billion in Medicaid anti-fraud reimbursement payments to California, saying the state "has not taken fraud very seriously," according to CBS News.

He warned all 50 state attorneys general — via a letter from HHS Inspector General Thomas Bell — that failure to aggressively investigate Medicaid fraud puts their entire state Medicaid funding at risk. Bell's language, as reported by The Guardian citing The Wall Street Journal: "This means your failure to do your job has put all of your state's Medicaid funds in jeopardy."

Vance specifically called out Ohio — a red state — as having Medicaid fraud problems too. But he also said it's "generally blue states" that aren't pursuing fraud aggressively, a political statement alongside the policy announcement.

What the Different Outlets Got Wrong — or Conveniently Left Out

The right-leaning Daily Signal gave the numbers and the Oz quotes but skipped concerns about legitimate providers getting caught in the net, a real issue worth coverage.

The Los Angeles Times noted that "some healthcare officials warn the aggressive tactics could harm legitimate providers" and flagged that the administration has made "significant errors in past fraud accusations against states." The LA Times buried the scale of the actual fraud problem in its framing.

The Guardian's coverage leaned hard on the political threat angle — "sparking fresh accusations that Trump officials are using unfounded allegations to punish political rivals." The accusations of fraud are not unfounded. The OIG documented $198 million in suspected fraud in 2023 alone.

CBS News did the most thorough reporting, having done the original investigative work on LA County hospice fraud that helped trigger this response.

The Legitimate Concern Nobody Wants to Fully Admit

A blunt enrollment freeze affects everyone, including legitimate new providers trying to enter a market that genuinely needs more capacity.

If a rural area needs a new home health agency to serve aging patients, that agency cannot get Medicare enrollment for six months minimum. The patients who needed that service are not fraudsters. They're just old and sick and out of luck.

Earlier this year, CMS ran a similar moratorium on new durable medical equipment and prosthetics suppliers, also citing fraud. The pattern is clear — the administration is using enrollment freezes as a blunt tool while it builds better investigative infrastructure.

It may prove to be the right call given the scale of fraud, but the approach carries real risks for legitimate providers.

The Bottom Line

Fraud in Medicare's home health and hospice sector is real, large, and has been ignored for years across multiple administrations. The Trump administration is the first to actually freeze the door shut while investigators clean house.

The approach is aggressive and carries risks for legitimate providers. Vance's use of it as pre-election messaging doesn't change the underlying problem.

But every outlet should ask: Why did it take this long? This fraud has been documented by the OIG for years. Where was the outrage — and the action — during the previous four years?

Some $198 million in suspected fraud in a single year, from people stealing from the elderly and dying.