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Federal law enforcement officials joined Ohio leaders to announce a series of fraud cases. National politicians have praised Gov. Mike DeWine for his work and sharply criticized GOP lawmakers who blame him for allegations of Medicaid fraud.
At an event outside Columbus, state leaders stood shoulder to shoulder with federal politicians to announce charges against people accused of defrauding the government of millions of dollars.
Todd Blanche, acting U.S. attorney general, opened the event by discussing how the Trump administration is waging its war on fraud.
“Ohio faces some of the most significant fraud in the country,” Blanche said.
He, Medicaid chief Dr. Mehmet Oz and FBI Director Kash Patel explained fresh efforts to combat all types of fraud. They are launching a fresh federal system to share data. This fresh cooperation will aid in the fight against “fraudsters”, they claim.
“The cases we are presenting represent a unified statewide anti-fraud effort that is operating at full speed,” Blanche continued.
Officials also announced several main accusationswith federal and state charges against nine defendants for allegedly defrauding the government of $42 million in Medicaid billing or COVID programs.
“In both cases, the defendants we allege exploited families by allegedly providing children with specific behavioral services through community programs,” said Ohio Attorney General Dave Yost.
The state also suspended 49 home health care providers for so-called “potential red flags” in their billing patterns and suspended government audits until they completed their investigations.
Federal law enforcement officials are impressed with Ohio’s crackdown on fraud.
“Ohio’s Medicaid Fraud Control Unit is one of the gold standard control units,” said Andrew Ferguson, chairman of the Federal Trade Commission.
But Ohio politicians tell a different story.
DeWine’s drama
The governor was not invited to the event, which was attended by every other official from across the state except Lt. Gov. Jim Tressel.
Legislative leaders accuse DeWine of allegedly failing to police Medicaid-related crimes.
“This is a broken system that we need to address in the near future,” Senate President Rob McColley (R-Napoleon) said in mid-May. “We need leadership to make sure we take this issue seriously.”
Allegations of Medicaid fraud emerged after the conservative daily The Daily Wire published an article containing rampant but unsubstantiated claims of fraud.
“It’s theft, but there’s a whole host of other things as well. It’s recklessness. It’s negligence,” House Speaker Matt Huffman (R-Lima) said in May when asked whether DeWine was complicit if the fraud allegations were true.
Huffman cited several ways DeWine may have contributed to financial abuses by vetoing budget provisions that he believed would have provided more protections. One of those items was a veto in 2019 of a provision that would have required the state to audit Ohio’s Medicaid managed care plans. In issuing the veto, DeWine wrote that the state auditor already had audit authority and therefore it was duplicative regulation.
The speaker also accused former Medicaid chief DeWine of being “negligent” in her job — but he was referring to a statement DeWine often repeats.
“Because of him, the case ends,” Huffman said.
Although Huffman has been one of DeWine’s most vocal opponents, he forgot to account for his possible role.
In mid-May, I mentioned to the speaker that in the last budget he got rid of the Joint Medicaid Oversight Committee, the body that deals with waste, fraud, and abuse.
“If there was fraud, how can you not be held accountable for it?” I asked both him and McColley.
Huffman responded by sharing the history of how he created the Senate Medicaid Committee in 2021 and then the House Medicaid Committee in 2025.
“But creating a separate body and a separate office. I think it sounded good at first to the people responsible for creating it, but it was fundamentally ineffective in trying to get to the bottom of these issues,” Huffman said.
Each Medicaid committee considers bills affecting the system; their purpose is not surveillance.
Huffman said that even after JMOC was disbanded, DeWine was on top, fighting reform efforts.
DeWine denied the allegations against him, saying he was struggling with all sorts of problems. Since taking office in 2019, he has cited nearly 1,100 medical fraud convictions.
His team says that since 2011, DeWine has helped obtain 2,378 Medicaid fraud indictments and 2,216 convictions. A total of $645 million was recovered, according to the state.
“We will continue to work directly with them and do everything in our power to stop any form of fraud,” the governor said in overdue May.
“You say that Ohio is the gold standard for Medicaid fraud and that Ohio is really great at fighting it. We have several legislative leaders who have said that Governor Mike DeWine, who is notably absent from this event, and Attorney General Dave Yost are asleep at the wheel when it comes to combating Medicaid fraud,” I told Blanche. “Where is the disconnect between federal officials and state officials?”
“Well, I’m not going to speak to what government officials have said here; I can only speak to what we’re seeing and the results that we’re responding to,” Blanche said.
He then dismissed Republican Party legislative leaders.
“I think a local politician can talk, but then we can have people who actually act and act,” Blanche said. “And I will take ‘doing and doing’ over just having someone talk to me every day.”
After the event, I asked state Rep. DJ Swearingen (R-Huron) how he thought DeWine was praised, noting that he had criticized him.
“Federal officials focus on federal issues, not statewide policy,” Swearingen responded. “They are here to help fight fraudsters and that is their job, not to get involved in this politics.”
After the event, the governor’s team said it supported the anti-fraud initiative, even though he had not been asked to participate.
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This article was originally published on News5Cleveland.com and are published in the Ohio Capital Journal under a content sharing agreement. Unlike other OCJ articles, it is not available for free republication on other news outlets because it is owned by WEWS in Cleveland.
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