Ron DeSantis Found the Right Way to Fight Medicaid Fraud and It’s A Model For Every Other State

The results justify the approach. Over the past two years, Florida has terminated or denied enrollment to more than 3,200 providers and recovered more than $72 million in improper payments. That money didn’t come from cutting therapy hours. It came from catching people who were billing for therapy that never happened.

The national scale of the problem explains why this matters so much. Senator John Kennedy documented Medicaid spending on autism therapy jumping 403% nationally between 2019 and 2024. Minnesota’s spending went from $670,000 to $342.8 million in that same period — a 50,988% increase — while federal prosecutors were charging clinic operators with billing $46.6 million for therapy sessions that allegedly never occurred. An HHS inspector general audit found at least $600 million in questionable billing across four states alone. This isn’t a rounding error. This is systematic, organized looting of a program that genuinely disabled children depend on.