DOGE goes after Medicare and Medicaid as Elon Musk calls it source of 'big money fraud'

Elon Musk has acceptable his sights connected the almighty authorities bureau that controls Medicare and Medicaid payments, going done fiscal systems to spot wherever funds are being spent.

Musk's squad astatine the Department of Government Efficiency has been on-site astatine the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services were they have gotten entree to cardinal outgo and contracting systems, the Wall Street Journal reported.

The DOGE squad person accessed akin systems astatine the Treasury Department and person a gathering astatine the Labor Department connected Wednesday day arsenic portion of their mandate to chopped national spending and the size of the government.  USAID saw each its unit enactment connected leave. 

Musk, the billionaire laminitis of SpaceX, confirmed the news, penning connected X: 'Yeah, this is wherever the large wealth fraud is happening.'

He and his team, astatine the petition of President Donald Trump, person been connected a quest to upend the government.  

CMS, a portion of the Department of Health and Human Service, is simply a large distributor of healthcare payments.

The halfway sent retired astir $1.5 trillion successful fiscal 2024.

With astir 6,710 employees, it oversees Medicare, the wellness sum programme for older and disabled Americans, and Medicaid, for lower-income people. 

Musk's squad has not yet gotten entree to the database that includes enrollees idiosyncratic information and the DOGE entree is 'read-only,' meaning it cannot marque changes to the system.

But payments coming from CMS are analyzable and vary. 

Many Medicare payments spell done backstage insurers, which are paid by the national government. Medicaid is jointly overseen by national and authorities officials, and national payments spell straight to the states.

The national authorities has enforcement efforts astir healthcare fraud astatine the Justice Department, the Department of Health and Human Services, and astatine CMS itself.

Musk's radical has been causing contention with galore Democrats protesting the cuts to authorities and the layoff of national workers.

Unions person started filing lawsuits. 

Democrats person questioned if Musk has immoderate oversight but Trump said the billionaire proprietor of X is only acting with his approval. He added that his medication is keeping the SpaceX founder, who has billions successful national contracts, from interfering successful immoderate country wherever determination is simply a struggle of interest.

'Elon volition not bash thing without our support and we volition springiness him the support wherever appropriate,' helium said successful the Oval Office connected Monday. 

'If determination is simply a conflict, we won't fto him get adjacent it. He has a squad of talented people. We are trying to shrink government. Where we deliberation determination is simply a struggle oregon a problem, we won't fto him spell adjacent it,' helium added.

The president noted that Musk 'has entree lone to letting radical spell that helium thinks are nary bully - if we hold with him. He is talented from the standpoint of absorption and outgo and we enactment him successful complaint of seeing what helium could bash with definite groups and definite numbers.'

Musk is serving arsenic a a 'special authorities employee,' the White House said.

He has a authorities email code and bureau abstraction successful the White House complex. 

Musk is not receiving a paycheck truthful wouldn't person to record the modular authorities disclosure forms.

And Trump did contradict Musk's petition to let Baris Akis, a Turkish-born task capitalist with a greenish card, to enactment for DOGE, The Atlantic reported. U.S. instrumentality mostly prohibits noncitizens from moving for the national government.

But Trump has different fixed Musk wide latitude erstwhile it comes to cutting backmost connected authorities spending and the national workforce. 

DOGE is not a authorities section but a tiny squad successful Trump's administration. It works retired of the Eisenhower Executive Office Building, crossed the thoroughfare from the White House.