The Justice Department announced that another major hospital will provide “detransition” services to those who regret undergoing transgender procedures as children. 
The Cleveland Clinic will allocate $2 million towards services aimed at reversing transgender procedures done on patients before they turned 19, according to a new settlement between the healthcare giant, the Justice Department, and the state of Ohio. 
The settlement, announced last week, will require the Cleveland Clinic to no longer offer transgender procedures for minors and pay the federal government $300,000 and the state of Ohio $8,000 to resolve a lawsuit accusing the clinic of falsely labeling transgender procedures in its medical billing codes. The clinic has denied all wrongdoing. 
“I am grateful that institutions like Cleveland Clinic and Texas Children’s have decided to be part of the solution, not part of the problem,” said Assistant Attorney General for the Civil Division Brett Shumate. “Cleveland Clinic’s commitment to providing millions of dollars towards care for detransitioners is emblematic of just that.”
The detransition services to be provided include medical care for hormonal balancing, surgical revision and reconstruction, fertility treatments, and mental health support. The clinic must also create a website, appoint a designated care coordinator, and take steps to advertise the services. 
A <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/a-monumental-day-hospital-to-create-first-ever-detransition-clinic">similar settlement</a> reached with Texas Children’s Hospital last month required the creation of the first-ever “detransitioner clinic.” In recent years, detransitioners such as Chloe Cole and others have filed lawsuits going after the doctors who pushed them into medicalizing their gender confusion. 
“The Department of Justice is steadfastly committed to protecting America’s children,” said Associate Attorney General Stanley Woodward. “Just as the resolution with Texas Children’s, today’s resolution with Cleveland Clinic furthers that commitment and puts these providers on notice that this Department will vigorously enforce federal law where children are put at risk.”
The Justice Department praised the Cleveland Clinic in its announcement of the settlement, saying it “remained cooperative, proactive, and solution-driven” throughout the process. 
“We are pleased to have worked collaboratively toward a resolution related to an unintentional coding issue involving a small number of patients,” the clinic told The Daily Wire. “We remain focused on providing exceptional care to our patients and communities. We have complied and will continue to comply with all federal and state laws.”
The settlement was criticized by leftist activist organizations, with the ACLU of Ohio <a href="https://x.com/acluohio/status/2065067567757041860">saying</a> it was “deeply saddened” by the agreement. 
Transgender procedures on children have been banned in Ohio since August 2024 after a ruling from a judge allowed its prohibition to go into effect.

Supreme Court Considers Tennessee’s Ban On Treatments For Transgender Minors

Major Hospital Makes A Dramatic U-Turn On Youth Transitions

Cleveland

Department of Justice

Ohio

transgender surgery

At least 12 people were shot at an Ohio music festival on Saturday — and two suspects, according to local police, have not yet been apprehended.
The Old West End Festival, billed as a family-friendly event, came to a screeching halt when two suspects — believed to be shooting at each other — opened fire and sent bystanders fleeing in all directions. According to several reports, around sixteen shots were fired around 5:4o pm local time — and at least 12 people were shot.
Ohio State Rep. Josh Williams (R) shared video that showed the chaos unfolding on the scene.
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet">
What should have been a day to celebrate our community and enjoy family activities in Toledo’s Old West End was once again marred by senseless gun violence. Enough is enough. We need tougher penalties for violent offenders, which is exactly why Ohio must pass HB5. <a href="https://t.co/k1msAtir5M">pic.twitter.com/k1msAtir5M</a>
— Rep. Josh Williams (@JoshWilliamsOH) <a href="https://x.com/JoshWilliamsOH/status/2063489839115244009?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">June 7, 2026</a></blockquote>
<script async src="https://platform.x.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
According to a CNN <a href="https://www.cnn.com/2026/06/06/us/old-west-end-festival-toledo-ohio-shooting?Date=20260607&amp;Profile=CNN&amp;utm_content=1780796424&amp;utm_medium=social&amp;utm_source=twitter">report</a>, Toledo Police Deputy Chief Joe Heffernan said Saturday that authorities believe the shooting began as a dispute between the two suspects who were &#8220;probably shooting at each other,&#8221; neither of whom have yet been apprehended.
Police Lt. Dan Gerken spoke at a news conference on Saturday evening, saying that he&#8217;d spoken to the victims — who range in age from 14 to 61 — and that he believes the suspects can be found with some help from the local residents.
&#8220;If we get help from the community, it’ll be hopefully sooner than later. There’s kids out there that probably know more than all of us standing here,&#8221; he said.
Toledo Mayor Wade Kapszukiewicz told reporters that all of the victims in Saturday&#8217;s shooting were expected to survive, although two remain critical according to a <a href="https://nypost.com/2026/06/06/us-news/multiple-people-rushed-to-hospital-after-shots-fired-at-family-friendly-ohio-festival/">report</a> from The New York Post.
Festival organizers responded to the tragic turn of events in a Facebook post, ultimately announcing that the remainder of the festivities scheduled for Sunday, June 7, would be canceled.
&#8220;Too often we turn on the news and learn of a celebration somewhere that turns into a tragedy. Now, that news comes from our own neighborhood. We are heartbroken about those that were injured at the Old West End Festival. Many people want to know how we proceed from such a dark place,&#8221; the post read. &#8220;After discussion with festival organizers, law enforcement and the City of Toledo, we feel that it would not be compassionate, responsible or possible to continue festival. Therefore, all festival events for Sunday June 7th are cancelled.&#8221;
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Close-up of Police Tape in Front of Police Car

Festival Horror: At Least 12 Shot As Hunt For Suspects Intensifies

At Least 12 Shot At Music Festival, Suspects Still At Large

Crime

Music

Shooting

A massive show of federal force descended on Columbus, Ohio, on Thursday following a Daily Wire investigation into Medicaid, with top Trump administration officials including Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche, and the head of Medicaid Dr. Mehmet Oz on the ground to announce major anti-fraud initiatives.
At a joint press conference in Columbus, the administration officials announced several steps that are being taken to eliminate fraud in the state.
Forty-nine home health care firms have been suspended (most of them <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/ohio-suspends-dozens-of-medicaid-home-health-firms-highlighted-in-daily-wire-investigation">in the buildings</a> highlighted in our stories), and one was raided Thursday morning, Dr. Oz said. He specifically mentioned The Daily Wire&#8217;s findings, saying &#8220;there&#8217;s a road here very close to where we are [with] <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/inside-ohios-home-health-empire-7-buildings-288-medicaid-companies-250-million" target="_blank" rel="noopener">288 facilities</a> in one block,&#8221; and &#8220;no more <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/refugees-from-bhutan-billed-medicaid-millions-now-they-drink-champagne-in-private-jets" target="_blank" rel="noopener">champagne on private jets</a>.&#8221;
The press conference came a day after the House Oversight Committee spotlighted the Daily Wire&#8217;s reporting, in which task force chairman <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/democrat-witness-almost-brought-to-tears-after-luke-rosiaks-medicaid-fraud-testimony" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Brandon Gill</a> drilled down into the abuse&#8217;s connection to refugee communities.
Oz highlighted that connection.
&#8220;This is a Mecca for Somalian populations, it&#8217;s a hub for the Bhutanese and Nepalese. We were naive to think that practices that are common in other parts of the world wouldn&#8217;t follow them here,&#8221; he said.
The assistant attorney general for the National Fraud Enforcement Division, Colin McDonald, said that Ohio&#8217;s attorney general will announce an $11 million action from the state&#8217;s Medicaid fraud control unit, that Ohio&#8217;s secretary of state has signed a data-sharing agreement giving investigators access to corporate ownership records, and that State Auditor Keith Faber has applied to have federal fraud investigators detailed to the state.
&#8220;To the people of Ohio, if someone offers you a medical perk that sounds too good to be true, it is,&#8221; McDonald said. &#8220;We are resolved to till every field and turn over every rock to bring [fraudsters] to justice.&#8221;
There were numerous announcements of fraud in various fields in the state. Dominick Gerace, U.S. attorney for the Southern District of Ohio, announced a $30 million Medicaid fraud prosecution involving non-existent autism care. He said a home health care company in Columbus was raided Thursday morning, but that he would not be sharing details.
&#8220;This task force is going to operate similar to how we operate in the violent crime space, we&#8217;re going to inject a sense of urgency,&#8221; he said.
Dave Toepfer, U.S. attorney for the Northern District of Ohio, said five individuals from Ghana have been charged with conspiracy to commit wire fraud and money laundering, involving swindling the elderly.
&#8220;They devised a romance scheme to establish trust and then tell stories of vast inheritances and convince the elderly to pay them, using it to buy a mansion in Ghana, a Lamborghini,&#8221; he said. Luxury cars that had been seized were on display at the press conference.
Andrew Ferguson, who co-chairs the anti-fraud task force alongside Vice President J.D. Vance, announced that major actions were being taken outside of the state to combat fraud as well. In Hawaii, he announced during the press briefing that the state&#8217;s Medicaid fraud control unit was decertified.
He said the federally-funded unit astoundingly &#8220;didn&#8217;t produce a single indictment of a fraudster from 2021 through 2026,&#8221; a near-certain sign that nobody was even looking.
Ferguson pledged a &#8220;two-pronged attack on fraudsters: DOJ will put fraudsters in jail, and the agencies will make sure we install safeguards to the money never reaches the fraudsters in the first place.&#8221;
Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche&#8217;s message was clear.
&#8220;This is a good day for Ohio,&#8221; Blanche said.

Dr. Oz and Todd Blanche in Columbus

Trump’s Massive Anti-Fraud Strike Force Lands In Ohio

Medicaid Millionaires

Citizens of Columbus, Ohio, are advocating for their heritage after a city landmark was taken down during the statue wars of 2020.
According to the <a href="https://www.wsj.com/us-news/confederate-statues-christopher-columbus-removed-fb294c49?mod=us-news_lead_pos3">Wall Street Journal</a>, traditionalists are now suing and lobbying local governments to return the memorials of Confederate generals, Founding Fathers, and European explorers. The most notable example of this is the citizens of Columbus, Ohio, calling for the restoration of their 22-foot-high, 3-ton statue of Christopher Columbus, which was removed from City Hall after protests broke out following the killing of George Floyd in 2020. 
The explorer’s monument that once stood tall in Ohio&#8217;s capital now lies in a secure storage facility, monitored and labeled with caution tape. But a group of Italian Americans filed a federal lawsuit seeking the statue&#8217;s return and asserting that its original removal was illegal. 
“You reach a point where this stuff is shoved down your throat, and you can only take so much of it,&#8221; said 67-year-old Jack Conte, the lawsuit&#8217;s organizer.
In a time overshadowed by the COVID pandemic with riots that raged against police and perceived racism, Democrat Mayor Andrew Ginther said the statue needed to be taken down so that citizens “will no longer live in the shadow of our ugly past.” 
Detractors of the Columbus statue have argued that Columbus was cruel to natives, but supporters of the explorer contend that he should be praised for his historic discoveries. 
The Trump administration joined the push to bring Columbus back by constructing a statue in March near the White House. The new Columbus statue, which is a replica of the Baltimore Columbus statue that protesters sank in 2020, was put up ahead of the nation’s 250th anniversary. This action is matched by President Donald Trump&#8217;s praise of Columbus as “the original American hero and one of the most gallant and visionary men to ever walk the face of the Earth.&#8221; 
The replica was loaned to the federal government by the Conference of Presidents of Major Italian American Organizations, whose president — Basil Russo — was a former Democratic politician from Cleveland. According to the Journal, Russo said that America has made Columbus a “scapegoat for Western colonization.” Russo also questions how Columbus could have removed the statue in the first place, given that it&#8217;s the city&#8217;s name. 
“What sense does that make?” Russo asked, per the Journal. 
Columbus, Ohio, was originally named in adoration of the explorer during the 1800s. The Italian explorer was honored for centuries in Ohio&#8217;s capital. However, as historians became belligerent concerning Columbus and raised inflated claims about the death toll of natives, the city incrementally removed his tributes. 
But people like Conte are working to undo this damage. Some of these efforts seek to create a new home for the statue and provide viewers with more historical context.

COLUMBUS, OH – MAY 16:  A life-sized Christopher Columbus statue stands outside Columbus City Hall on May 16, 2014 in Columbus, Ohio. (Photo By Raymond Boyd/Getty Images)

Restoring History: Another Famous Columbus Statue Makes A Comeback

Christopher Columbus

Donald Trump

A Democratic state senator said she almost cried after Daily Wire investigative reporter Luke Rosiak discussed his Medicaid fraud findings during congressional testimony on Wednesday.
Ohio Democratic state Sen. Nickie Antonio, whom lawmakers also questioned Wednesday, claimed that the hearing was full of &#8220;hateful rhetoric.&#8221;
&#8220;I was almost brought to tears just now because the rate and level of hateful rhetoric &#8230; the lack of humanity &#8230; I am shocked,” she said.
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As part of his testimony before the House Task Force on Defending Constitutional Rights and Exposing Institutional Abuses led by Rep. Brandon Gill (R-TX), Rosiak revealed that 100% of the companies he found suspected of Medicaid fraud were owned by foreigners. 
“You looked into hundreds of companies, and 100% you are telling me had names of a Somali, Bhutanese, or other sort of an African origin?” asked Gill. 
“Correct,” Rosiak answered. 
Earlier in the hearing, Rosiak explained that “Refugees are using [Medicaid] to bring money back to their home countries. So Congress created this program as medical aid and there are people turning it into foreign aid.” 
After Gill finished his line of questioning for Rosiak, he turned to Senator Antonio and asked her, “Has Somali immigration been good for your state?” 
&#8220;You know, that&#8217;s really outside of my purview of information,&#8221; she said.
Through his investigations, Rosiak found that Ohio spent roughly $1 billion on home healthcare services in 2024 alone, with most of the funds loosely monitored. The lack of oversight allowed relatives to receive taxpayer funding for providing in-home “personal services” such as cooking, cleaning, and companionship.
Rosiak found entire office buildings filled with Medicaid-billing home health companies, many run by individuals with little or no healthcare background, and in some cases, histories of fraud, unpaid debts, or criminal convictions.
At another point during the hearing, a Democratic lawmaker who did not have permission to attend the hearing <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/watch-dem-shouts-over-daily-wires-luke-rosiak-calls-his-medicaid-fraud-findings-ridiculous">interrupted</a> Rosiak and called his findings &#8220;ridiculous.&#8221;
“I’m not waived in the committee, but this is ridiculous,” Rep. Shontel Brown (D-OH) exclaimed as Rosiak was in the middle of his testimony.
Brown, who represents Ohio’s 11th district covering Cleveland, is not even a member of the bipartisan task force, which includes six Republicans and four Democrats.

Luke Rosiak

Democrat Witness ‘Almost Brought To Tears’ After Luke Rosiak’s Medicaid Fraud Testimony

Daily Wire

Fraud

Medicaid

Ohio officials are moving to overhaul the state’s anti-fraud infrastructure after The Daily Wire’s reporting exposed massive abuse inside Ohio’s Medicaid system, with top fiscal watchdogs now aligning themselves directly with Vice President JD Vance’s national anti-fraud push.
In a major development first shared with The Daily Wire, Ohio State Auditor Keith Faber has joined the State Financial Officers Foundation (SFOF), a growing coalition of state auditors, treasurers, and comptrollers focused on combating government waste, fraud, and abuse.
The move comes after Daily Wire investigations uncovered <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/medicaid-millionaires-how-the-feds-pay-immigrants-billions-to-hang-out-with-their-families?author=Luke+Rosiak&amp;category=News&amp;elementPosition=5&amp;row=0&amp;rowType=Vertical+List&amp;title=DW+Investigation+Reveals+One+Of+The+Biggest+Government+Waste+Scandals+Hiding+In+Plain+Sight">widespread fraud</a> in Ohio’s Medicaid home healthcare programs, including cases in which convicted fraudsters were permitted to operate taxpayer-funded healthcare businesses while billing the government millions of dollars.
“We couldn&#8217;t be more excited to welcome Ohio Auditor Keith Faber as our 42nd state financial officer,” OJ Oleka, the CEO of SFOF, told The Daily Wire. “As outrageous Medicaid fraud in Ohio continues to be exposed, Auditor Faber is precisely the kind of leader needed to root it out entirely and take bold action to make the state&#8217;s programs safer for taxpayers and beneficiaries than ever before,” Oleka added.
According to Oleka, Faber’s office has already identified nearly $9 billion in waste, fraud, and abuse across state government programs. 
Faber framed the effort as part of a broader national mission among conservative fiscal watchdogs aligned with the Trump administration’s renewed crackdown on government corruption. 
“We look forward to working with other conservative fiscal officers to protect taxpayers from waste, fraud, and abuse,” Faber told The Daily Wire. “Transparency and accountability with taxpayer money is a team sport.”
At the same time, Ohio State Treasurer Robert Sprague is pushing major reforms to Ohio’s government transparency system, known as Ohio Checkbook, which allows taxpayers to track public spending data.
Sprague’s office recently backed legislation that the Ohio House overwhelmingly passed and would dramatically expand the transparency database and increase public access to government expenditure information. 
“More than ever, taxpayers must have confidence that their hard-earned money is being used efficiently and honestly,” Sprague told The Daily Wire exclusively. “Our office stands with Vice President Vance and financial officers nationwide in our mission to not only expose waste, fraud, and abuse, but prevent it.” 
The reforms reflect a growing national movement among Republican state financial officers who increasingly view themselves as on the front lines of the Trump administration’s “war on fraud.”
Auditors across the country have begun deploying aggressive new tactics ranging from AI-assisted audits to citizenship verification systems aimed at preventing taxpayer-funded benefits from flowing to ineligible recipients.
North Carolina State Auditor Dave Boliek said fiscal watchdogs should prioritize taxpayers over protecting government bureaucracy.
“It’s not my job to protect government,” Boliek told The Daily Wire. “It’s my job to protect the taxpayer, and they need an advocate.”
Utah State Auditor Tina Cannon warned that political resistance often comes from those who benefit financially from bloated government systems. 
“The thing that bothers me the most is when people call the federal money coming into the state free money,” Cannon said. “No, that&#8217;s somebody&#8217;s federal tax return that is going to this program.”
The intensified focus on fraud comes as the Trump administration’s Task Force to Eliminate Fraud, spearheaded by Vance, increasingly coordinates with conservative state financial officers to uncover abuse embedded throughout federal and state programs.
For Ohio Republicans, The Daily Wire’s reporting appears to have accelerated that effort.

Ohio Statehouse

Ohio’s Fraud Crackdown Is Getting Real — And The Watchdogs Are Coming Out Swinging

Daily Wire senior investigative reporter Luke Rosiak joined the Republican Study Committee’s “Right To The Point” podcast Tuesday to break down his explosive reporting on alleged Medicaid fraud schemes in Ohio, warning that billions in taxpayer dollars are vulnerable to abuse in a system riddled with weak oversight and perverse incentives.
Rosiak, whose reporting has exposed shocking examples of alleged fraud tied to Medicaid-funded home healthcare programs, told Ohio Reps. Dave Taylor and Warren Davidson that his investigation began after the Departments of Government Efficiancy and Health and Human Services released data showing which companies were receiving Medicaid payments.
“For me as an investigative reporter,” Rosiak said. “I wanted to just take an analytical look at the data and run the numbers and see what popped up.”
What popped up, according to Rosiak, was a sprawling web of questionable providers operating in Ohio’s home healthcare system — including individuals with prior fraud convictions allegedly receiving millions in taxpayer dollars through Medicaid-funded programs.
“One of the companies is owned by a husband and wife,” Rosiak explained. “The husband has been convicted three times of fraud. The wife’s been convicted three times of theft … and they were given permission after that to start a home healthcare company that bills the government.”
Rosiak argued that the problem extends beyond isolated bad actors and instead reflects structural failures within the Medicaid system itself, particularly in programs that rely heavily on unverifiable in-home care claims.
“You can literally bill the government for ‘companionship and conversation,’” he said, describing programs where family members can receive taxpayer funds to care for relatives inside private homes.
Davidson echoed concerns about the scale of improper payments and highlighted what he described as systemic accountability failures across federal and state bureaucracies. Taylor pointed to legislation aimed at deporting non-citizens convicted of defrauding federal benefit programs.
The discussion also touched on revelations from Rosiak’s reporting that Ohio’s electronic visit verification system — intended to track whether healthcare workers actually visited patients — allegedly allowed providers to disable GPS tracking while still receiving payment. “The only reason you need privacy is if you want to defraud the government,” Rosiak said when asked why it wasn’t being logged properly.
The wide-ranging conversation eventually turned lighter, with Rosiak joking about life on his Virginia hobby farm and describing raising goats, chickens, and bees.

Daily Wire’s Luke Rosiak Torches Ohio Medicaid Fraudsters On Congressional Podcast

House Republicans

The latest Netflix documentary that has viewers glued to their TVs is &#8220;The Crash,&#8221; which tells the story of convicted murderer Mackenzie Shirilla and the deadly 2022 car crash that put her behind bars for 15 years to life.
The 90-minute documentary features in-depth interviews with Shirilla’s parents, Natalie and Steve, and the families of the two young men killed in the crash: Dominic Russo and Davion Flanagan.
Prosecutors successfully argued that Shirilla, who was 17 at the time, intentionally crashed the vehicle at roughly 100 mph into a commercial building in Strongsville, Ohio, a suburb outside Cleveland, in the early morning hours of July 31, 2022.
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According to family and friends interviewed in the documentary, Russo had been involved in a &#8220;toxic&#8221; relationship with Shirilla, while Flanagan was a friend who joined the two in the car that fateful morning.
While the Netflix show focuses heavily on the emotional fallout surrounding the case, key details found in reports from Strongsville Police show a more complete picture of Shirilla&#8217;s behavior and state of mind leading up to the crash.
A central question in both the trial and documentary was whether the teenager really meant to crash a car at a high rate of speed into a brick building. While her parents said no, local authorities suggested the parents were aware their daughter was capable of doing harm.
A detective said he was told by a police sergeant that Shirilla’s father, Steve, said she &#8220;intentionally&#8221; drove her vehicle into the building in an attempt to take her own life. Steve also told the sergeant his daughter was suicidal and asked that she remain in the hospital, according to the detective.
At this time, Shirilla had just turned 18 while recovering in the hospital, meaning she was now an adult and could legally check herself out despite her father’s wishes.
Another bombshell in the detective&#8217;s report claims Shirilla voluntarily engaged in sexual acts with other people &#8220;likely in exchange for monetary value.&#8221; Dozens of Snapchat messages and text messages indicate Shirilla requested money in exchange for pictures or meetups.
The documentary includes interviews with several of Shirilla&#8217;s friends who defended her character and insisted she would never hurt anyone. But other witnesses interviewed by police described her driving as reckless and dangerous. One person said she &#8220;sucked at driving.&#8221;
Police records also cite Snapchat videos allegedly recorded by Shirilla in April 2022 showing a vehicle speedometer reaching 93 mph in traffic.
Rosie Graham, one of Shirilla&#8217;s strongest defenders in the documentary, was also cited in police records as telling friends not to get in the car with her.
Shirilla&#8217;s efforts to overturn her conviction on appeal have so far failed. She is up for parole in 2037.

Credit: Ohio Department of Rehabilitation and Correction

The Disturbing Details Netflix Didn’t Include In ‘The Crash’

Netflix

News

Ohio&#8217;s Republican gubernatorial nominee, Vivek Ramaswamy, addressed Medicaid fraud in the Buckeye State on Tuesday, following <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/medicaid-millionaires-how-the-feds-pay-immigrants-billions-to-hang-out-with-their-families">explosive reports</a> from Daily Wire investigative reporter Luke Rosiak.
Rosiak&#8217;s findings have <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/ohio-says-safeguards-exist-to-stop-medicaid-fraud-but-admits-massive-loophole?author=Luke+Rosiak&amp;category=News&amp;elementPosition=undefined&amp;row=0&amp;rowType=Vertical+List&amp;title=Ohio+Says+Safeguards+Exist+To+Stop+Medicaid+Fraud%2C+But+Admits+Massive+Loophole">exposed</a> billions of dollars of apparent Medicaid fraud in Ohio, by way of dubious “personal services” payments where people are paid to spend time with their own family. Most people who participate in the fraud appear to be foreigners.
&#8220;I think it&#8217;s fair to say that, if you had not just reported the facts, as you did a few weeks ago, the people in this room, who are working hard to solve these problems, wouldn&#8217;t have the platform to actually make this a priority for our state,&#8221; Ramaswamy said of Rosiak.
The former presidential candidate won the Ohio Republican primary earlier this month. He&#8217;s facing Democrat nominee Amy Acton in Ohio&#8217;s November gubernatorial election.
&#8220;Healthcare costs are spiraling out of control, &#8230; the healthcare costs that Ohioans are bearing every day,&#8221; he said.
Medicaid is for Americans who temporarily &#8220;need a hand up,&#8221; the Republican said. &#8220;The problem is that, when you have criminals, fraudsters, thieves, claiming money for themselves, it diverts money away from those for whom these programs were intended.&#8221;
Ramaswamy said Medicaid fraud is creating higher healthcare costs for all Ohioans and Americans at large.
&#8220;The easiest solution that I will be able to deliver to you in the first six months of my leadership of this state, will be to crush Medicaid fraud by the billions,&#8221; he declared. &#8220;And to put money back in your pockets, where it belongs.&#8221;
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-media-max-width="560">
Crushing Medicaid fraud is one of the simplest ways to make healthcare more affordable. Most healthcare policies force a painful trade-off between cost, access and quality, but this one doesn’t: It takes money from criminals and returns it to the families who play by the rules. <a href="https://t.co/RQJq68lG80">pic.twitter.com/RQJq68lG80</a>
— Vivek Ramaswamy (@VivekGRamaswamy) <a href="https://twitter.com/VivekGRamaswamy/status/2056753013327630419?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">May 19, 2026</a></blockquote>
&#8220;Crushing Medicaid fraud is one of the simplest ways to make healthcare more affordable,&#8221; he <a href="https://x.com/VivekGRamaswamy/status/2056753013327630419">posted</a> to X. &#8220;Most healthcare policies force a painful trade-off between cost, access, and quality, but this one doesn’t: it takes money from criminals and returns it to the families who play by the rules.&#8221;
Rosiak attended the event personally and addressed the crowd, detailing the fraud he&#8217;s uncovered in Ohio. Notably, in the wake of the reporting, Vice President JD Vance <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/vance-threatens-to-cut-funds-to-states-that-ignore-medicaid-fraud-after-daily-wire-investigation?author=Drew+Berkemeyer&amp;category=News&amp;elementPosition=undefined&amp;row=0&amp;rowType=Vertical+List&amp;title=Vance+Threatens+To+Cut+Funds+To+States+That+Ignore+Medicaid+Fraud+After+Daily+Wire+Investigation">warned</a> that the Trump administration will cut off certain federal anti-fraud funding to states that fail to aggressively investigate Medicaid abuse.
Rosiak is set to testify before a Senate panel this week about his findings.
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-media-max-width="560">
🔴 LIVE: Crushing Fraud. Lowering Healthcare Costs. <a href="https://t.co/3hT2Jwyy2a">https://t.co/3hT2Jwyy2a</a>
— Vivek Ramaswamy (@VivekGRamaswamy) <a href="https://twitter.com/VivekGRamaswamy/status/2056744991477600390?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">May 19, 2026</a></blockquote>
Related: <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/ohio-says-safeguards-exist-to-stop-medicaid-fraud-but-admits-massive-loophole?author=Luke+Rosiak&amp;category=News&amp;elementPosition=undefined&amp;row=0&amp;rowType=Vertical+List&amp;title=Ohio+Says+Safeguards+Exist+To+Stop+Medicaid+Fraud%2C+But+Admits+Massive+Loophole">Ohio Says Safeguards Exist To Stop Medicaid Fraud, But Admits Massive Loophole</a>

Vivek Ramaswamy, Luke Rosiak

Vivek Vows To Tackle Medicaid Fraud ‘By The Billions’ After Bombshell Daily Wire Investigation

Vivek Ramaswamy

This is part four of &#8220;Medicaid Millions,” a Daily Wire series exposing billions of dollars in dubious “personal services” payments where people are paid to spend time with their own relatives.
***
COLUMBUS, Ohio — Ohio’s Medicaid has paid more than $5 million to a company that says it sends helpers to the homes of the elderly – even though the company’s president had a daycare shut down because of signs it was billing for nonexistent children, and her husband has a felony conviction for billing the government for nonexistent elder services.
The tale raises questions about what, if any, effort the government makes to ensure it isn’t being tricked by Medicaid providers who bill the government vast sums.
Omega Healthcare Services is based in a black, windowless building in Columbus, a city that boasts one of the largest African immigrant populations in the country and also gets the bulk of the state’s Medicaid dollars. When The Daily Wire visited its office during business hours, the door was locked and no one was there.
Yet Omega was <a href="https://npidb.org/organizations/agencies/home-health_251e00000x/1033712484.aspx" target="_blank" rel="noopener">certified</a> to begin receiving Medicaid dollars for &#8220;home health&#8221; in November 2020. According to Ohio spending records, the state paid the firm <a href="https://checkbook.ohio.gov/State/Resources/PayeeSearch.aspx?search=OMEGA%20HEALTHCARE%20SERVICES,%20LLC" target="_blank" rel="noopener">$5.7 million</a> beginning in June 2020 and as recently as this month.
<div id="attachment_1094215" style="width: 840px" class="wp-caption alignnone"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-1094215" class="wp-image-1094215 size-full" src="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2026/05/Screenshot-2026-05-12-at-9.21.49-PM.png" alt="" width="830" height="538" srcset="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2026/05/Screenshot-2026-05-12-at-9.21.49-PM.png 830w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2026/05/Screenshot-2026-05-12-at-9.21.49-PM-300x194.png 300w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2026/05/Screenshot-2026-05-12-at-9.21.49-PM-768x498.png 768w" sizes=" (max-width: 830px) 100vw, 830px" />The Daily Wire</div>
Who runs this lucrative home health business? Business records <a href="https://bizimage.ohiosos.gov/api/image/pdf/202014001324" target="_blank" rel="noopener">show</a> it’s registered to Esther Acheampong, who a decade ago had a daycare in Wisconsin called Kids Campus CDC <a href="https://dcf.wisconsin.gov/wishares/terminated-providers" target="_blank" rel="noopener">shut down</a> because it was &#8220;unable to provide investigators with requested attendance records.&#8221;
Sharing the same office is an accounting firm called Scabeda registered to Esther and her husband, Robert Acheampong.
In 2005, Robert Acheampong pleaded guilty to <a href="https://storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.uscourts.ohsd.104599/gov.uscourts.ohsd.104599.2.0.pdf" target="_blank" rel="noopener">felony theft of public money</a> in federal court, after stealing $19,000 from the IRS and a priest in a scheme that mirrors what fraudulent home health companies are known to do.
He falsely claimed to represent a “community development” nonprofit in order to seek a federal grant for &#8220;tax counseling for the elderly.&#8221; He falsely claimed that 25 volunteers filed taxes for 1,000 elderly people, and billed the government for $16,000 in expenses.
He <a href="https://dam.assets.ohio.gov/image/upload/acc.ohio.gov/Website%20Materials/About%20Us/Compliance/Disciplinary_Spreadsheet.pdf" target="_blank" rel="noopener">lost</a> his accounting license and received four months house arrest and three years of probation. His probation was extended to 2010 after he incurred <a href="https://storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.uscourts.ohsd.104599/gov.uscourts.ohsd.104599.3.0_1.pdf" target="_blank" rel="noopener">another felony</a> conviction, for failing to support his own children.
The feds put a $15,000 lien against him, but he simply never paid it – even as his wife, an immigrant from Ghana, found an extraordinarily successful business venture in billing the government for visits to the elderly.
In December 2024, the government <a href="https://storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.uscourts.ohsd.104599/gov.uscourts.ohsd.104599.6.0_1.pdf" target="_blank" rel="noopener">gave up</a> on trying to collect what it was owed, saying the &#8220;collection period for the criminal monetary penalties… has expired.&#8221; Shortly prior, records show the Acheampongs <a href="https://delaware-auditor-ohio.manatron.com/Property.aspx?mpropertynumber=318-130-02-007-000&amp;mtab=property&amp;p=31813002007000" target="_blank" rel="noopener">bought</a> an upscale home in the tony suburb of Lewis Center.
<div class="image"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" class="aligncenter size-large wp-image-1093851" src="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2026/05/omega-sign-871x576.jpeg" alt="" width="871" height="576" srcset="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2026/05/omega-sign-871x576.jpeg 871w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2026/05/omega-sign-300x198.jpeg 300w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2026/05/omega-sign-768x508.jpeg 768w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2026/05/omega-sign-1536x1016.jpeg 1536w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2026/05/omega-sign-2048x1354.jpeg 2048w" sizes=" (max-width: 871px) 100vw, 871px" /></div>
In April 2025, Ohio <a href="https://dam.assets.ohio.gov/image/upload/v1751395777/acc.ohio.gov/Board%20Meeting%20Materials/Signed%20Meeting%20Minutes/2025%20Meetings/Apr_25_2025_ABO_Meeting_Minutes_-_signed.pdf" target="_blank" rel="noopener">reinstated</a> his accounting license. Scabeda’s sign advertises advice on “advanced taxation” and boasts of securing “$25 MILLION IN LOANS.” Scabeda itself received $25,000 in forgivable <a href="https://www.usaspending.gov/award/ASST_NON_8377448904_073" target="_blank" rel="noopener">COVID loans</a>.
Robert Acheampong’s multiple felonies were just one of a slew of red flags that the Ohio Department of Medicaid could have caught when it approved Omega Healthcare Services to operate in the “home health” field, a program known to be highly vulnerable to fraud.
Omega’s LLC paperwork filed in May 2020 didn’t list Robert’s name; it <a href="https://bizimage.ohiosos.gov/api/image/pdf/202014001324" target="_blank" rel="noopener">listed</a> Esther and a white American teenager who lived more than two hours away.
Public records show the teen is the son of Paul G. A. Kasapis, who had just gotten out of federal prison for <a href="https://www.justice.gov/usao-ndoh/pr/canton-man-sentenced-more-year-prison-money-laundering-and-tax-violations" target="_blank" rel="noopener">tax fraud</a> and money laundering convictions tied to an illegal casino he was running out of a bowling alley. The Omega paperwork was filed three days after the teen turned 18. Scabeda’s LLC paperwork was <a href="https://bizimage.ohiosos.gov/api/image/pdf/202012100706" target="_blank" rel="noopener">updated</a> in the teen’s name on the same day.
The Ohio Department of Medicaid didn’t seem to find it odd that a teenager from Canton was teaming up with a woman from Ghana on a Medicaid business. The Daily Wire did. When we reached out, we got part of the story from his mother.
Debbie Kasapis said Robert Acheampong was the accountant, apparently working despite his revoked license, who filed the fraudulent tax returns concealing millions of dollars for her now ex-husband.
After Paul was released from prison, she found that they were still working together.
&#8220;Something came to the bowling alley for a trucking company, and it had Paul&#8217;s address and a Columbus phone number,&#8221; she explained. &#8220;I dialed the phone number&#8230; it came up Robert Acheampong.&#8221;
She was shocked. Worse, they were using her son&#8217;s name: “I can guarantee you, if my kid&#8217;s name is on it, my kid doesn&#8217;t know&#8230; I don&#8217;t think my son is quite aware of how much his dad is using his name,” Debbie said, adding that she was surprised he was able to get government money.
“It just seems like nobody’s minding the store,” she said of government oversight.
Paul Kasapis owes more than $500,000 in restitution to the IRS, but Debbie suspects he’s hiding money. Some of those assets might be in Robert’s name.
On April 4, 2025, the Kasapises’ divorce was finalized. The next day, a company called Genesis Training Center LLC was created. The <a href="https://bizimage.ohiosos.gov/api/image/pdf/202509304792" target="_blank" rel="noopener">articles of incorporation</a> were signed only by Robert and Esther Acheampong. But the paperwork was sent to Paul Kasapis’s bowling alley.
<div class="image"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" class="aligncenter size-large wp-image-1093857" src="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2026/05/omega_payments_by_year-1024x514.jpg" alt="" width="1024" height="514" srcset="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2026/05/omega_payments_by_year-1024x514.jpg 1024w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2026/05/omega_payments_by_year-300x151.jpg 300w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2026/05/omega_payments_by_year-768x386.jpg 768w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2026/05/omega_payments_by_year-1536x771.jpg 1536w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2026/05/omega_payments_by_year.jpg 1641w" sizes=" (max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px" /></div>
In March 2020, a company called <a href="https://bizimage.ohiosos.gov/api/image/pdf/202008701028" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Bullet Logistics</a> was created in the name of the then-17-year old son. After the divorce was finalized, it was <a href="https://bizimage.ohiosos.gov/api/image/pdf/202534601320" target="_blank" rel="noopener">amended</a> to list the elder Kasapis. Scabeda Group’s online account was used to make that change.
In September 2021, Robert and Esther <a href="https://bizimage.ohiosos.gov/api/image/pdf/202026502922" target="_blank" rel="noopener">created</a> Omega 1 Logistics Inc. Two years later, Kasapis, the convicted money launderer, created <a href="https://bizimage.ohiosos.gov/api/image/pdf/202325602098" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Omega 1 Log LLC</a>, a name that most people would assume was the same company simply abbreviated, but which was actually a different legal entity.
Asked about the near identical name of Acheampong’s trucking company, the elder Kasapis said, “Why is that weird?” He told The Daily Wire he hired Acheampong to create the bowling alley LLC, but his son was &#8220;not at all&#8221; involved in any businesses, and he didn&#8217;t know why his name appeared.
Esther Acheampong declined to comment. Robert Acheampong did not answer repeated phone calls.
The Acheampongs are tied to several businesses, including a mortgage bank called the <a href="https://bizimage.ohiosos.gov/api/image/pdf/201923403164" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Omega Mortgage Banc Corporation</a>, which listed their own then-17-year-old son as a partner.
Their business filings regularly involve individuals billing the government large amounts of money. In October 2020, Robert was named as the sole incorporator of <a href="https://bizimage.ohiosos.gov/api/image/pdf/202029602104" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Alert Security Agency</a>, but the company was created using a Secretary of State account linked to an address belonging to Dr. Yaw Ayesu-Offei, who founded numerous Medicaid companies, including one that billed $4.7 million.
Scabeda itself was originally <a href="https://bizimage.ohiosos.gov/api/image/pdf/201907902270" target="_blank" rel="noopener">created</a> using the online account of Al Hassan Mansaray, the founder of the High Tech Learning Center, Inc. The learning center’s listed address is an apartment, and its website consisted of <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20190906053220/http://www.hlcoh.org/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">stock photos</a>, but it got <a href="https://www.usaspending.gov/award/ASST_NON_1083949007_073" target="_blank" rel="noopener">$30,000</a> in COVID money.
<h3>Cat and mouse</h3>
Ohio spent $1 billion on home health in 2024, paid overwhelmingly with federal money. How many of the 3,700 home health LLCs incorporated in Ohio have similar stories to the Acheampongs?
To illustrate how common it has become for people in some communities to bill the government for such work, the Acheampong home health care business is not even the only multi-million dollar business within its office building. The windowless black box – a different one than the buildings mentioned in a <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/inside-ohios-home-health-empire-7-buildings-288-medicaid-companies-250-million?topStoryPosition=undefined&amp;author=Luke+Rosiak&amp;category=Investigation&amp;elementPosition=0&amp;row=1&amp;rowHeadline=Top+Stories&amp;rowType=Top+Stories&amp;title=Inside+Ohio%E2%80%99s+Home+Health+Empire%3A+7+Buildings%2C+288+Medicaid+Companies%2C+%24250+Million">previous installment</a> of this series – is full of companies that bill the government.
Down the hall is All Nation Home Health Care, which collected $7.5 million since 2018. Across the corridor is Confidential Health Services LLC, which fittingly had its windows blacked out. Ohio state records report paying it <a href="https://checkbook.ohio.gov/State/Resources/PayeeSearch.aspx?search=CONFIDENTIAL%20HEALTH%20SERVICES%20LLC" target="_blank" rel="noopener">$1.8 million</a>, and it got $280,000 in <a href="https://www.usaspending.gov/search?hash=244f6f780843f8cdd9724ecd6a03b566" target="_blank" rel="noopener">COVID money</a>.
More than 15% of all “home health” spending in Ohio takes place in four square miles around northeast Columbus, <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/daily-wire-investigation-ignites-imminent-crackdown-on-medicaid-fraud" target="_blank" rel="noopener">according</a> to the state auditor. The city houses one of the largest African immigrant communities in the country, many based in the same neighborhood where home health has become so prevalent.
As part of this investigative series on Medicaid spending, The Daily Wire reviewed scores of companies in Columbus and found them often connected to people with red flags in their background that raise questions about waste, fraud, and abuse in the massive government program.
Ohio’s Republican governor Mike DeWine has said that “Ohio has extensive oversight mechanisms in place” to root out fraud and abuse.
Parker Thayer, an investigator for the Capital Research Center, contributed reporting.
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Medicaid Millions Part 4

He Was Convicted For Defrauding The Government. Now Medicaid Pays His Wife Millions.

Special Reporting

This article is on Ohio&#8217;s response to “Medicaid Millions,” a Daily Wire series exposing billions of dollars in dubious “personal services” payments where people are paid to spend time with their own family.
***
Ohio says it has safeguards in place to cut down on fraud and abuse of Medicaid home health care, but one of the biggest tools to verify care is actually taking place has been rendered useless.
The Daily Wire’s investigation of the multi-billion dollar a year Medicaid industry in Ohio has raised concerns about abuse of a program in which people are paid to visit the homes of elderly poor people and provide “cooking,” “cleaning,” and other non-medical services that even include “companionship.”
In response to those concerns, the Ohio Department of Medicaid said it is “aware of concerns involving home health care activity” in Columbus, and “has been actively investigating these matters since prior to the publication of The Daily Wire series.” It touted an “extensive set of safeguards&#8221; in place to ensure aides are actually going to homes.
The key component is &#8220;mandatory electronic visit verification capturing date, time, and service location,&#8221; a feature that is required by federal law. But Ohio Republican Governor Mike DeWine’s administration inserted massive loopholes including making the verification optional.
The 21st Century Cures Act, passed by Congress in 2016, <a href="https://www.medicaid.gov/medicaid/home-community-based-services/home-community-based-services-guidance-additional-resources/electronic-visit-verification" target="_blank" rel="noopener">mandated</a> that states require electronic visit verification, or EVV, by January 2020 for the riskiest category of “personal services” – non-medical services like cooking and cleaning – and by January 2023 for in-home nursing. Yet for years, Ohio simply paid providers even if they didn’t submit any electronic evidence, according to a <a href="https://ohioauditor.gov/Auditsearch/Reports/2024/117_Electronic_Visit_Verification_Report_FINAL.pdf" target="_blank" rel="noopener">2024 audit</a> by Auditor of State Keith Faber.
Faber’s audit, examining payments in 2022, found that 44% of personal services claims had no electronic verification. The situation was similar for home nursing. “This resulted in approximately $1.1 billion in claims not supported by an EVV visit,&#8221; the audit found.
The audit said if the state has an electronic validation system, then using it should be a &#8220;condition of payment.&#8221; A spokeswoman for the Ohio Medicaid Department, Stephanie O’Grady, told The Daily Wire that this was done in March 2025.
But shortly before EVV was made mandatory, it was neutered as a fraud prevention tool. The most important feature – GPS coordinates captured by an electronic device – was made optional and defaulted to “off.”
“Effective July 1, 2024, GPS functionality within any EVV application or device may only be activated with the signed consent of the individual receiving services — valid for one year and revocable at any time,” O’Grady said. “The approach allows the person receiving care to make an informed decision related to privacy protections for individuals receiving home and community-based services.”
O&#8217;Grady disclosed to The Daily Wire that GPS is turned off for nearly half of home visits, with reliable coordinates present in only 53% of electronic records.
The patient was also supposed to sign their name to show that the patient and aide were actually together, but that, too, was removed in 2024, Faber’s audit flagged.
Earlier this year, Ohio’s attorney general Dave Yost, whose office is tasked with policing Medicaid fraud, testified that the rollback of safeguards made his job difficult.
“Until about a year ago [GPS] was required, now it&#8217;s optional,” he <a href="https://www.ohiochannel.org/programs/ohio-house-medicaid-committee-3-24-2026-joint-meeting-of-medicaid-committees" target="_blank" rel="noopener">told legislators in March</a>. “I do not know for the life of me why it went away, but I respectfully ask you to put in statute where no vendor, no bureaucrat can object to legitimate monitoring.”
“While we had the GPS, you could see where the person was, they had to drive to the house of the person they were providing services for, you could see how long they were there. That record makes it much harder to do the fake billing where they say they went to five houses but really sat at home,” he said.
Ohio state lawmaker Josh Williams, a Republican from Toledo, says there was no reason why the recipient of a government service would object, or be able to object, to the government verifying that the person being paid by the government to help him actually showed up.
“It seems like the DeWine administration continues to protect the bad actors. And I&#8217;m frustrated as a legislator, I&#8217;m frustrated as a taxpayer. I&#8217;m frustrated because I don&#8217;t think we should be providing protection for these individuals,&#8221; he told The Daily Wire. “We&#8217;re not checking any of your personal information. We&#8217;re making sure that the person that is assigned to your case is actually going to your residence.&#8221;
“You want to be a Medicaid provider in the state of Ohio for home health care aid, we should be able to track your location data during the times in which you&#8217;re asking for payment,” he added.
He said that a common fraud scheme involves a patient and caregiver colluding to have the government pay for nonexistent work — in which case the patient could now simply refuse GPS verification of the caregiver’s presence.
“You have family members going to provide services to an elderly individual, and on many occasions, they&#8217;re not even showing up, but they&#8217;re getting paid. That family member is not going to report their nephew or their cousin or their niece for not showing up. That&#8217;s part of a widespread, broad fraud that we&#8217;re seeing,” he said.
Williams has introduced a <a href="https://www.legislature.ohio.gov/legislation/136/hb795" target="_blank" rel="noopener">bill</a> to make GPS mandatory again. But even then, it appears that GPS data could easily be faked.
Faber’s audit said that Ohio spent $146 million contracting with Sandata, a company that produces EVV devices and software, resulting in Ohio providers being able to use Sandata’s software for free. Nonetheless, the state allows home care providers to use their <a href="https://medicaid.ohio.gov/resources-for-providers/special-programs-and-initiatives/electronic-visit-verification" target="_blank" rel="noopener">own software</a> instead, potentially including software that simply transmits fake coordinates rather than ones coming straight from a mobile device’s sensors.
The vulnerabilities don’t end there. Ohio also permits the electronic records to be manually adjusted. In 2022, “34 percent of all EVV entries were manually adjusted,” Faber’s audit found.
Additionally, ten percent of aides are exempt from EVV because they live with the patient, often a family member, O’Grady said.
Yost, who resigned as attorney general last week for a job in the private sector, said in his testimony that in addition to DeWine’s rules, Ohio laws also make it difficult to prove and punish Medicaid fraud.
The attorney general’s Medicaid fraud unit isn’t authorized to use subpoenas to gather information, he said. If someone is actually investigated, charged, and convicted, their punishment will be light because Medicaid fraud is “capped as being less serious than other theft, as a third degree felony,” he said.
<h3>Red state blues</h3>
<div class="image"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" class="aligncenter size-large wp-image-1092743" src="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2026/05/ohio-hhc-chart-1024x480.jpg" alt="" width="1024" height="480" srcset="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2026/05/ohio-hhc-chart-1024x480.jpg 1024w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2026/05/ohio-hhc-chart-300x141.jpg 300w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2026/05/ohio-hhc-chart-768x360.jpg 768w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2026/05/ohio-hhc-chart-1536x720.jpg 1536w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2026/05/ohio-hhc-chart-2048x959.jpg 2048w" sizes=" (max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px" /></div>
The Medicaid scandal in Ohio has exploded under an all-Republican leadership. In fact, the historical dollar amounts in this series, relying on data through 2024, likely understate the ongoing cost, because DeWine drastically increased the pay rate for home health providers in 2024.
The increases took effect as “part of Governor Mike DeWine’s commitment to making sure every Ohioan receives quality care and that providers receive support to continue delivering the highest level of care for Ohio’s residents,” a press release <a href="https://ohiohcbs.pcgus.com/news/important-information-fee-for-service-reimbursement-rate-increases" target="_blank" rel="noopener">said</a>. “The rate increases are historic in nature, totaling approximately $3.4 billion per year,” including home health and other Medicaid spending.
DeWine has been accused of being soft on fraud, particularly after a spokesman once called fraud in the state&#8217;s Somali hotspots “the <a href="https://www.dailysignal.com/2026/01/14/ohio-gov-mike-dewine-responds-to-fraud-concerns/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">cost of doing business</a>.”
Last week, Vivek Ramaswamy secured the Republican nomination to replace DeWine next year. Responding to The Daily Wire’s reporting, he <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YMXQjWxVQTw" target="_blank" rel="noopener">said</a> that states have “turned a <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YMXQjWxVQTw" target="_blank" rel="noopener">blind eye</a> to this level of rampant fraud” despite the fact that “in a modern era of AI, you have a toolkit that allows you to detect aberrant abnormalities.”
That’s partly because of an incentive issue with how Medicaid is set up, he said. Medicaid is run by the states, but is largely paid for by the federal government. That means it’s up to states to stop waste and fraud, but they don’t always have a strong financial motivation to do so, because it would decrease federal dollars to the state.
Ohio’s Medicaid program is set to be in the hole <a href="https://www.daytondailynews.com/local/ohio-medicaid-projected-to-lose-33b-over-next-decade/article_2f369df5-0a08-4819-a490-ac1b46612b95.html" target="_blank" rel="noopener">$33 billion</a> over the next few years due to federal changes aimed at stopping states from gaming the numbers to offload even more of the burden to the feds.
Vice President <a href="https://x.com/JDVance" target="_blank" rel="noopener">JD Vance</a>, also from Ohio, said in response to The Daily Wire’s series: “I’m directing the task force to look into it and take immediate action to prosecute any fraudsters involved and stop all further payments as appropriate.”
Ramaswamy noted that there is “uppercase F fraud, and also lowercase F fraud, which may be technically legal but doesn’t comport with anyone’s sense of who should get these dollars.” Those cases could necessitate changes in law or policy to stop the bleeding.
Aggressive Medicaid “waiver” programs such as those the feds have allowed Minnesota and Ohio to run are particularly vulnerable to abuse, and have exploded in usage. Medicaid takes up nearly half of Ohio’s general revenue fund, and spending has doubled in recent years.
Yet even as the red flags are hard to ignore — the percentage of people claiming to be autistic is exploding the dubious levels, for example — there has been aggressive, almost blatant pushback against using common and affordable technology to provide basic safeguards.
Nationally, a group called “<a href="https://www.stopevv.com/media-toolkit" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Stop EVV</a>” launched a “media toolkit” showing pictures of disabled people holding signs with messages like, “I’M THE EMPLOYER. IT IS MY RIGHT TO SCHEDULE, SUPERVISE &amp; SIGN MY EMPLOYEE’S TIMESHEET.” The site pictured a bald eagle and American flag and called stopping GPS tracking a “civil rights” issue.
Ohio’s Department of Medicaid says that “all allegations of fraud are investigated,” and further that many of the companies identified by The Daily Wire “are subject to ongoing investigation” by the state. It said it is unable to comment on those investigations.
But Faber, the auditor — who is running for attorney general — has been <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/daily-wire-investigation-ignites-imminent-crackdown-on-medicaid-fraud" target="_blank" rel="noopener">warning</a> of abuse that mirrors The Daily Wire’s findings. He recently told the legislature that 38% of Ohio home health spending was in Franklin County, and that of that, 41% – or more than 15% of all home health care spending in the state — is spent in a four mile radius.
Faber’s audit found that in 2022, there were 2,479 home health companies in Ohio, which were paid $1.8 billion. That means 10% of all home health companies in the state are located in the seven buildings owned by one landlord in Columbus&#8217;s Somali neighborhood, which was highlighted in our <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/inside-ohios-home-health-empire-7-buildings-288-medicaid-companies-250-million">second installment</a>.
The data analyzed by the Daily Wire, finding a quarter billion dollars to companies in seven buildings, covered from 2018 to 2024. It understates the total because data for smaller companies is not available for privacy reasons.
Parker Thayer, an investigator for the Capital Research Center, contributed reporting.
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J.D. Vance/Mike DeWine

Ohio Says Safeguards Exist To Stop Medicaid Fraud, But Admits Massive Loophole

J.D. Vance

Vice President JD Vance said on Tuesday that uncovering fraud in the federal government was like “fishing in a barrel with dynamite.” His comment came after The Daily Wire <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/medicaid-millionaires-how-the-feds-pay-immigrants-billions-to-hang-out-with-their-families?author=Luke+Rosiak&amp;category=News&amp;elementPosition=1&amp;row=0&amp;rowType=Vertical+List&amp;title=DW+Investigation+Reveals+One+Of+The+Biggest+Government+Waste+Scandals+Hiding+In+Plain+Sight">reported</a> Monday that Ohio was doling out federal Medicaid dollars for people to spend time with their families. 
Vance, who is heading up the President Donald Trump’s Fraud Task Force, said he is surprised every week to find what kind of fraud his team was discovering. 
“Finding fraud in the federal government, it&#8217;s kind of like fishing in a barrel with dynamite. Every week, I get a report for the task force,” Vance said during an appearance in Iowa. “I am shocked every single day by the things that we find.”
Vance previously promised on Monday that the Fraud Task Force would dig into The Daily Wire’s reporting on Medicaid fraud in his home state. 
“These shocking allegations, if true, show why the Fraud Task Force’s work is so important. I’m directing the task force to look into it and take immediate action to prosecute any fraudsters involved and stop all further payments as appropriate,” he wrote on X, sharing a thread from Daily Wire investigative reporter Luke Rosiak detailing the uncovered fraud.
Rosiak reported Monday that Ohio spent a billion dollars on home health care in 2024, the last year for which data is available. What these funds went toward was difficult to verify because they often went toward “home health care” performed in private residences by family members of those getting the care.
During his speech in Iowa, Vance said that the Trump administration was working to go after the fraudsters who have grown rich by defrauding the American taxpayer. 
“We had let fraud become so rampant in this country that people were able to get rich, not by creating something amazing, not by employing something, not by building something beautiful with their hands,” Vance said. “They were able to get rich by defrauding every single person in this room.”
The vice president said Somali fraudsters in Minneapolis had taken advantage of a program intended to help autistic children and discussed rampant Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) waste uncovered by Agricultural Secretary Brooke Rollins. 
He said that Rollins had found 355,000 people receiving double SNAP benefits and 186,000 dead people on SNAP. 
“I actually think that we should take food stamps away from dead people,” Vance said. “I&#8217;m guilty of that. I think that&#8217;s a reasonable thing.”
The fight over SNAP fraud has now <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/no-more-food-stamps-for-millionaires-the-fight-over-snap-fraud-heads-to-the-states">headed to the states</a> where lawmakers are attempting to eliminate a loophole called broad-based categorical eligibility which allows people to qualify for SNAP without asset testing.

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