COLUMBUS, Ohio — Vice President JD Vance has expanded his Medicaid fraud investigation to include Ohio, creating political challenges for Republican gubernatorial candidate Vivek Ramaswamy, who is also a close political ally.
Just one day before Ramaswamy secured victory in Ohio’s May 5 primary election, Vance announced on X that his anti-fraud task force would investigate the Buckeye State. This announcement coincided with a Daily Wire investigation that exposed widespread abuse in Ohio’s Medicaid-funded home health care system.
Shortly afterward, U.S. House Republicans established a new Task Force on Defending Constitutional Rights and Exposing Institutional Abuses, naming the Ohio fraud allegations as their initial focus.
This represents a significant shift for Vance, whose previous high-profile enforcement actions have primarily focused on Democratic-controlled states like Minnesota, California and Maine. While he has attempted to counter accusations of partisan targeting by pointing to investigations in Republican states such as Florida, Vance has specifically blamed Democrats for enabling Medicaid fraud.
On Tuesday, Ramaswamy embraced the political moment by announcing that combating Medicaid fraud would be his “absolute top priority.” His strategy to lower healthcare expenses and “crush” Medicaid waste includes renegotiating Ohio’s agreement with the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services to secure better fraud-prevention incentives and reduce bureaucratic red tape.
Based on a waiver that Tennessee secured during the previous Trump presidency, this new agreement could generate $3.1 billion in savings for healthcare programs, according to campaign projections.
During Ramaswamy’s press event, criticism of the state’s Department of Medicaid, which has operated under Republican Gov. Mike DeWine for seven years, was a recurring topic. This criticism came not only from Ramaswamy but also from current Republican officials who have overseen Ohio’s existing oversight mechanisms for years.
When questioned about whether the Republican establishment that has governed for over 15 years should bear responsibility for missing Medicaid fraud, Ramaswamy declined to assign blame. “I’m not playing that game, OK?”
“I think we need a fresh approach, and what my candidacy represents is, I believe, a bottom-up movement and a demand for change, positive change in the state,” he stated. “A movement beyond the status quo that takes a lot of this for granted.”
Ramaswamy’s running mate, Ohio Senate President Rob McColley, wielded significant influence over the state budget that eliminated Ohio’s Joint Medicaid Oversight Committee last year. This committee was responsible for monitoring Medicaid, a federal-state healthcare program serving more than 25% of Ohio residents. The panel was examining contracts with Gainwell, the country’s largest Medicaid claims processor, when it was dissolved.
State Rep. Jennifer Gross, a Republican who sat on the committee, said Tuesday that the panel could have supported Vance’s and Ramaswamy’s fraud-fighting objectives.
“I believe that if we had kept JMOC it always could have been something that we kept in place that could have morphed into a DOGE Ohio, an Ohio Medicaid DOGE,” she stated.
The Trump administration has positioned its anti-fraud initiatives as protection for taxpayers facing economic pressures. Multiple state-level Republicans and candidates have adopted similar approaches.
However, some of these financial pressures stem from federal government policies. New Medicaid work requirements enacted by Congress are anticipated to burden hospitals nationwide and cause millions of enrollees to lose coverage.
DeWine has responded defensively to the criticism. Under scrutiny from his own party, the former congressman, U.S. senator and state attorney general unveiled new Medicaid fraud prevention measures on May 13, including suspending new enrollments in the home health program highlighted by the Daily Wire. He defended the “nation-leading work” Ohio was already conducting in this area.
On Tuesday, his spokesman Dan Tierney defended the governor’s track record and that of the state’s $43 billion Medicaid program, which covers more than 25% of all Ohioans.
“A general sentiment that Ohio was not working to combat or prosecute Medicaid fraud prior to the publication of the Daily Wire stories is just not true,” he stated. “There may be people who were unaware of Medicaid fraud prior to that, but Mike DeWine was not one of them.”
Tierney highlighted that Ohio consistently ranks among the nation’s top states for prosecuting Medicaid fraud, achieving 2,300 indictments, 2,200 convictions and recovering $644 million since 2011. He noted that DeWine set records for Medicaid fraud convictions three times as Ohio attorney general, and his successor, Republican Dave Yost, has surpassed those records twice.
Republican Ohio Auditor Keith Faber, who is seeking the attorney general position in 2026, said Tuesday that the Medicaid fraud Ramaswamy is emphasizing was already known to state officials. He stated that his office presented multiple findings to DeWine’s former Medicaid director, Maureen Corcoran, who resigned in September after serving more than six years.
Documents obtained by The Associated Press through public records requests reveal that Corcoran was battling the oversight committee over access to fiscal experts crucial to Ohio’s budgeting process shortly before the committee was eliminated. These investigations ceased when the committee was disbanded.
Democratic gubernatorial candidate Amy Acton’s campaign criticized Ramaswamy for promoting “scam policies.”
“As governor, Dr. Amy Acton will prioritize rooting out Medicaid fraud, waste, and abuse while ensuring that Ohioans can access affordable, quality healthcare,” campaign spokeswoman Addie Bullock said in a statement. “Dr. Acton is fighting to lower healthcare costs, protect Medicaid and Medicare access, and end the rampant corruption in Ohio’s Statehouse that has allowed fraud, waste, and abuse for far too long.”
