Florida spent years as a fraud hotspot while bureaucrats looked the other way.
Now Ron DeSantis is showing every other governor in America what it actually looks like to fight back.
What his investigators actually found inside that program should end careers – and it very well might.
What Florida Found When It Actually Started Looking
The Florida Agency for Health Care Administration launched more than 400 provider site visits this year as part of a heightened Medicaid integrity push.
Providers billed Medicaid for services rendered every single day – through weekends, through holidays, for months straight – without a single day off.
Some billed for more than 24 hours of services in a single day.
That's not a paperwork error.
That's not a rounding mistake.
https://twitter.com/GovRonDeSantis/status/2107498587911524386?s=20
That's someone sitting at a computer, stealing your money, and assuming nobody would ever check.
DeSantis announced the results Tuesday at a news conference in West Palm Beach: 250 providers placed on payment restrictions or suspended entirely, 220 providers terminated from Florida Medicaid for fraud, waste, or abuse.
Combined billing from those terminated providers: $230 million.
"These actions are focused on bad actors who exploit the program, not legitimate providers delivering necessary care to Floridians," DeSantis said.
SentiLink Caught Providers Billing Under Stolen Recipient IDs
Florida didn't just send inspectors with clipboards.
AHCA partnered with SentiLink – a fraud-detection firm – to identify providers with questionable backgrounds and hidden ownership structures.
The technology flagged hundreds of providers whose identities didn't check out.
Some were using stolen Medicaid recipient IDs to submit false claims – meaning real Floridians had their information used to fund fraud schemes they didn't even know were happening.
https://twitter.com/GovRonDeSantis/status/2107548073983401996?s=20
AHCA Secretary Shevaun Harris put it plainly: "No longer does it feel like we're looking for a needle in a haystack."
Her agency has already made more than 150 referrals to the state Attorney General's office.
DeSantis called Tuesday's announcement "the opening salvo."
This Is What Democrats Said Couldn't Be Done
This crackdown didn't happen in a vacuum.
In March, CMS Administrator Dr. Mehmet Oz sent Florida a letter calling it a "hotspot" for health care fraud – part of a Trump administration-wide push targeting fraud in New York, Minnesota, Maine, California, and Florida.
President Trump signed an executive order creating an anti-fraud task force led by Vice President JD Vance.
Minnesota, run by Democrats, fought back when CMS froze $260 million in their Medicaid funding over fraud concerns.
DeSantis said "buckle up" and unleashed his agency.
The contrast is stark: Democrat-run states lawyering up to protect a broken system, while Republican Florida is pulling the rotten providers out by the roots.
Florida's Medicaid program covers 4.3 million residents at a cost of roughly $34.6 billion annually.
That's a massive pool of money – and fraudsters have been swimming in it for years.
What Comes Next
DeSantis isn't done.
All active Florida Medicaid providers will go through mandatory revalidation over the next 12 to 24 months.
Any provider that doesn't respond gets disenrolled.
AHCA has also implemented enrollment moratoriums for high-risk provider categories – meaning new providers in the highest-fraud sectors can't get in the door until the existing ones are vetted.
Harris had a direct message for providers still gaming the system: don't feign ignorance, she said — review your billing history, fix your mistakes, and "give us back our money."
She also put recipients on notice: if you're allowing your Medicaid ID – or your child's – to be used for fraud, Harris said, "there's a separate effort underway to find you too."
https://twitter.com/GovRonDeSantis/status/2107521944300216559?s=20
Democrats spent years telling you Medicaid fraud was impossible to stop – too complicated, too widespread, too ingrained.
DeSantis just proved that was always an excuse.
When you actually look, you find people billing 25 hours in a single day.
And when you find them, you throw them out.
Byron Donalds – Trump's endorsed candidate for Florida governor – is running ads right now promising to continue DeSantis' leadership.
DeSantis just handed him the most powerful closing argument in the race: a $230 million receipt.
Not a promise. Not a platform. A result.
That's what Republican governance looks like when the people running it actually mean it.
Sources:
- Cindy Krischer Goodman, "DeSantis says crackdown on Medicaid fraud saved Florida $230 million," South Florida Sun Sentinel, October 6, 2026.
- Governor Ron DeSantis, "Governor Ron DeSantis Announces Medicaid Integrity Initiative to Crack Down on Fraud," Florida Governor's Office, June 12, 2026.
- "SentiLink Partners with Florida's Agency for Health Care Administration to Combat Medicaid Fraud," SentiLink press release, June 17, 2026.
- "Trump Administration Widens Medicaid Fraud Crackdown to Florida, Calling It a 'Hotspot'," Washington Times, March 17, 2026.
- "Dr. Oz Sets Sights on Florida Amid Widening Medicaid Fraud Crackdown," Becker's Hospital Review, March 2026.
