The anti-fraud task force led by Vice President JD Vance has suspended 447 hospices and 23 home health agencies in Los Angeles County on suspicion of Medicaid fraud, with estimated losses to taxpayers exceeding $600 million.
The suspensions mark a 539 percent increase from the 70 facilities flagged just two weeks ago. The task force has not stopped there. Officials say the numbers will keep climbing.
“Where there is fraud, the task force will find it,” a Vance spokesperson told Fox News Digital. “We will not stop until every hard-earned taxpayer dollar goes toward the honest Americans who deserve them.”
A White House official sent a blunt warning to those implicated: “To all fraudsters: good luck trying to hide from the Vice President’s task force. These suspension numbers, and the dollar values saved, are only going to increase.”
The California crackdown comes on top of $259.5 million in Medicaid funds the Vance task force and CMS Administrator Dr. Mehmet Oz announced plans to block from Minnesota in February, following revelations of widespread fraud in state-funded programs there.
The timing is notable. While the federal task force is uncovering what may be hundreds of millions in fraudulent billing across California, Democratic lawmakers in Sacramento are advancing legislation that critics say would make it a crime to expose that fraud.
Assembly Bill 2624, introduced by Democratic Assemblywoman Mia Bonta, would allow government-funded organizations to shield their addresses from public records if their employees claim to face threats related to working with immigrants. The bill passed its first committee on an 11-2 vote.
Republican Assemblyman Carl DeMaio called it what it is.
“California Democrats are trying to intimidate citizen watchdog journalists and protect waste and fraud happening in far-left-wing NGOs,” DeMaio said. “AB 2624 can only be described as the ‘Stop Nick Shirley Act,’ a bill designed to silence citizen journalists exposing fraud and abuse of taxpayer dollars.”
Shirley is an independent investigative journalist who gained national attention after exposing fraudulent daycare and healthcare centers in Minnesota, facilities largely funded through Medicaid and run by Somali immigrant operators. He recently turned his attention to California.
“California is trying to pass a bill that would criminalize investigative journalism with misdemeanors, $10,000 fines, imprisonment, and content takedown,” Shirley posted to X after the bill advanced. “The proposed bill was made after I exposed mass fraud by immigrant groups in America.”
DeMaio said the bill would let activists and taxpayer-funded organizations demand removal of video evidence, even footage captured in public view, while threatening journalists with steep financial penalties.
“Instead of fixing the fraud problems being uncovered, Sacramento politicians are trying to shut down the people exposing them,” DeMaio said.
Bonta, who chairs the Assembly Committee on Privacy and Consumer Protection that advanced the bill, argued the legislation is about protecting immigrant service workers from doxxing. Her husband, Rob Bonta, serves as California’s attorney general.
The Vance task force’s California operation is part of a broader federal push to recover Medicaid dollars lost to organized fraud networks. Officials say the effort is ongoing and the scope of suspended providers will expand as reviews continue.
