Feb. 25 (UPI) -- The Trump administration announced Wednesday it is pausing more than a quarter-billion dollars in Medicaid payments to Minnesota over alleged fraud, a move state officials called the latest act of political retribution against a Democratic-led state.
"We are going to start very aggressively in the administration cracking down on people and the organizations that are defrauding Americans," Vice President JD Vance said Wednesday while announcing the move at a White House press conference alongside Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services Administrator Mehmet Oz.
"So, we're announcing today that we have decided to temporarily halt certain amounts of Medicaid funding that are going to the state of Minnesota in order to ensure that the state of Minnesota takes its obligations seriously to be good stewards of the American people's tax money."
Oz said it was the first time the federal government has taken this kind of action against a state. The amount of Medicaid funding being deferred was $259 million, based on an audit of the last months of last year.
"This quarter-billion dollar deferment is hopefully going to get on the radar screen for that state of Minnesota and make sure they are responsive to our requests," he said.
