Overview
- CMS’s preliminary audit identifies California, Washington, D.C., Illinois, Washington state, Colorado, and Oregon, with California accounting for over $1 billion and Illinois and Oregon at roughly $30 million and $5.5 million.
- Agency officials say they are auditing aggressively and plan to recover misspent federal dollars, framing the effort as enforcement of Medicaid rules against covering undocumented individuals.
- Reporting differs on the timeframe, with one account describing spending mostly in 2024–2025 and another saying it occurred over the past few years, underscoring unresolved scope questions.
- Federal law bars using federal Medicaid funds for undocumented people except for emergency services under EMTALA, complicating assessments of what spending was allowable.
- State officials push back on the findings, with California calling the allegations false and Colorado disputing its cited figure, while CMS Administrator Mehmet Oz says states have been notified and some have begun refunds.