CMS Imposes Nationwide Moratorium on New Home Health and Hospice Approvals Amid Medicare Fraud Crackdown

The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services enacted a six-month nationwide moratorium on approvals of new home health and hospice providers following fraud investigations in Los Angeles County. CMS Administrator Mehmet Oz has been decertifying providers flagged for suspicious billing, and President Trump directed Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. to take action on healthcare fraud.

The Washington Examiner's commentary, written by Peter Roff, supported the administration's anti-fraud objectives while arguing that the national moratorium goes too far in its scope. Roff wrote that fraud is most concentrated in large urban areas such as Los Angeles, New York, and Minneapolis, and that applying a nationwide restriction spreads enforcement resources thin while creating barriers to care in communities that had no connection to the fraudulent activity.

The piece drew a direct contrast between fraud-prone jurisdictions and states with compliant providers, arguing that California's failure to police providers should not result in service denials for patients and operators in other states. The commentary described the moratorium as unintentionally forcing millions of critically ill patients into more expensive hospital-based end-of-life care rather than allowing them to remain at home.