Medicare claims for skin substitutes ballooned from $200 million in 2019 to $14.4 billion in 2025, a 7,100 percent increase that the Trump administration says was driven overwhelmingly by fraud. CMS Administrator Mehmet Oz and Vice President JD Vance laid out those figures at a press conference in Milwaukee, announcing that the White House Anti-Fraud Task Force has denied 96 percent of skin substitute claims filed since March and suspended or revoked billing privileges for more than 800 Durable Medical Equipment suppliers.
The numbers are worth reading twice. A category of Medicare spending that barely registered six years ago exploded into a $14.4 billion line item, and when the administration started checking the paperwork, almost none of it held up.
That is the core finding Fox News Digital reported from the Milwaukee event, where Oz warned that the scale of the fraud threatens the entire Medicare system. The task force, created by presidential executive order in May and led by Vance, has moved quickly from diagnosis to enforcement, cutting off payments, pulling supplier credentials, and referring cases for criminal prosecution.
Skin substitutes, also called allografts, are legitimate medical products used in wound care. But CMS identified 4,200 suspicious claims for these products totaling $224 million in charges through May alone. The agency suspended payments to 102 DME suppliers and revoked billing privileges for an additional 725. Together, those suppliers accounted for 8.6 percent of all Medicare-funded Durable Medical Equipment in 2025.
Think about that ratio. Nearly one in ten DME suppliers drawing Medicare dollars was flagged for fraud-related enforcement in a single product category.
Oz told Fox News Digital that the task force stopped nearly $220 million in fraudulent skin substitute claims. He framed the stakes in blunt financial terms at the Milwaukee press conference:
"That's a lot of money. And that bankrupts not just hospital systems and physician groups, but it causes major problems across the entire landscape."
The 96 percent denial rate since March is a striking figure on its own. It suggests that the vast majority of skin substitute claims submitted to Medicare in recent months could not survive basic scrutiny once someone decided to look. The question taxpayers should ask is why it took until 2025 for anyone to look at all.
President Trump signed the executive order creating the anti-fraud task force in May and tapped Vance to run it. The vice president has made fraud enforcement a visible part of his portfolio, and the task force has expanded well beyond skin substitutes.
In May, the Department of Justice charged 15 individuals in Minnesota for more than $90 million in alleged fraudulent claims tied to multiple state-funded assistance programs. Vance and the DOJ described the Minnesota cases as two of the largest Medicaid fraud prosecutions in that state's history, along with the largest autism fraud scheme ever charged by the federal government.
Vance posted on X at the time of the Minnesota announcement, making the administration's posture clear:
"The task force and the DOJ announced a massive takedown of two of the largest Medicaid fraud cases in Minnesota state history, as well as the largest autism fraud scheme ever charged by the federal government. Our message is simple: if you're committing fraud, we will find you, and we won't rest until justice is served."
Minnesota's fraud problems have drawn sustained federal attention. Vance has gone further than announcements, he has sent criminal fraud referrals to the Justice Department involving state officials, signaling that the administration views lax state oversight as part of the problem.
Beyond suspensions and revocations, Vance and Oz announced a moratorium on new DME companies entering the Medicare system. A spokesperson for Vance's office told Fox News Digital that the combined actions have effectively shut down an entire category of fraud:
"In just six months, the task force has effectively wiped out Durable Medical Equipment fraud in America. After the vice president and Dr. Oz announced a moratorium on new DME companies, paired with aggressive enforcement actions by DOJ and HHS, this kind of fraud has effectively ended."
That is a bold claim, and time will test it. Fraudsters adapt. But the speed of the crackdown, moratorium, mass suspensions, criminal charges, and a 96 percent denial rate, marks a sharp departure from the passive posture that allowed a $200 million billing category to become a $14.4 billion one in six years.
The task force's work extends beyond Medicare skin substitutes. The DOJ has launched enforcement actions tied to the task force over COVID-era loan fraud as well, suggesting a government-wide effort to claw back money lost during years of loose oversight.
Oz delivered a pointed message to anyone still gaming the system at the Milwaukee press conference:
"To anyone out there, and I'm talking to you if you're a fraudster, for anyone out there who thinks they can get away by stealing from the American people, especially American patients, I've got a bit of advice for you: Do not walk away from this press conference. Don't walk away from us. You start running because the vice president and this task force are coming after you."
The most damning number in the entire announcement is not the $14.4 billion. It is the timeline. Medicare spending on skin substitutes grew by more than 7,000 percent over six years. That kind of spike does not happen quietly. Billing data exists. Trend lines exist. Auditors exist, or are supposed to.
Yet no previous administration acted on what should have been an unmistakable red flag in the claims data. The fraud grew year over year, supplier after supplier, claim after claim, until it reached a scale that Oz says threatens the financial stability of hospital systems and physician groups nationwide.
The Trump administration has also withheld $1.3 billion in Medicaid payments to California over fraud concerns, and HHS has pulled federal funding from New York's Medicaid fraud unit over its dismal prosecution record. The pattern is consistent: states that failed to police their own programs are now facing consequences from Washington.
President Trump praised the effort in a June post on Truth Social:
"Vice President JD Vance and Republicans are doing a great job hunting down Fraud in the various States. Billions of Dollars is being found, and we've just started!"
Several questions remain. The 96 percent denial rate applies to claims filed since March, but it is not entirely clear whether that figure covers all skin substitute claims or only those flagged as suspicious. The 4,200 suspicious claims identified by CMS and the broader denial rate may draw from different datasets, a distinction that matters for understanding how wide the net was cast.
The 15 individuals charged in Minnesota face allegations involving more than $90 million, but their current legal status, whether any have entered pleas or been convicted, has not been disclosed in the announcement. The specific nature of the autism fraud scheme Vance referenced also remains largely undescribed beyond its historic scale.
And while the moratorium on new DME companies stops the front door, enforcement against existing fraudulent suppliers will require sustained attention from DOJ, HHS, and CMS. Fraud networks do not dissolve because of a press conference. They dissolve because investigators keep showing up.
Vance has shown a willingness to make this fight personal and public, pushing back forcefully against suggestions that the administration's priorities are misplaced. The anti-fraud task force is barely six months old. If the first round of results holds up under scrutiny, the political and fiscal case for expanding it only grows stronger.
A government program that lets a $200 million billing category balloon to $14.4 billion without anyone raising an alarm is not a government program with a fraud problem. It is a government program that was built to be defrauded. The only real question is whether anyone in Washington had the will to stop it, and for six years, the answer was no.
