The Trump administration announced Wednesday it will temporarily block new home health and hospice providers from enrolling in Medicare, the latest escalation by a White House anti-fraud task force targeting what officials describe as a systemic scheme draining tens of billions of dollars from programs that serve more than 4.5 million Americans each year.
The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services imposed the nationwide enrollment moratorium in coordination with a task force led by Vice President JD Vance, which was established in March 2026 and operates across 10 federal agencies including the Departments of Justice, Health and Human Services, Homeland Security, and Labor.
“Widespread fraud has gone on for far too long,” a Vance spokesperson said. “But under the Vice President’s task force we are finally putting a stop to the massive scale fraudsters ripping off the American people once and for all.”
The pause will give CMS time to audit Medicare expenditures across both sectors and develop stricter enrollment guidance before accepting new provider applicants, according to reporting by Reuters.
Scale of the Programs
The moratorium covers two of Medicare’s largest home-based benefit categories. In 2024, approximately 2.7 million Medicare patients received home healthcare services at a total program cost of $16 billion. During the same period, 1.8 million beneficiaries received hospice care at a combined cost of $28.3 billion — bringing total annual spending across both sectors to more than $44 billion.
The administration has pointed to the speed at which fraudulent businesses can be created in both sectors as a central concern behind the pause. Officials said approximately 90 percent of providers suspended by the task force to date have not contacted CMS since payments were halted — a pattern they described as evidence that many targeted businesses were not legitimate enterprises.
Months of Escalating Enforcement
Wednesday’s moratorium is the most sweeping action yet in a months-long federal crackdown. The Vance task force began with targeted suspensions in California in late March, when 70 home health and hospice providers were flagged as high-risk fraudulent operators in Los Angeles. Enforcement expanded rapidly: by mid-April, federal authorities had suspended 447 hospices nationwide and withheld more than $1.4 billion in Medicare payments from providers under investigation. Total estimated fraud in the Los Angeles area alone exceeded $600 million, according to the task force.
The moratorium also follows a related action taken in February, when the administration halted Medicare enrollments for suppliers of durable medical equipment such as prostheses. On May 1, the Department of Justice announced the formation of a dedicated Health Care Fraud Strike Force, further signaling the administration’s intent to sustain long-term pressure on the sector.
Congress has pressed the issue as well. A witness testifying before a House committee in April warned that as enforcement intensified on hospice providers, fraudulent operators were migrating into home health agencies — a dynamic that appears to have accelerated the decision to apply the enrollment freeze to both sectors simultaneously.
State and Industry Context
The fraud problem has drawn attention at the state level for years. California’s state auditor warned in 2022 that lax oversight had enabled large-scale fraud in the state’s Medi-Cal hospice program, and California has operated a moratorium on new hospice licenses since 2024. After Wednesday’s federal announcement, California Gov. Gavin Newsom’s office said it was “glad to see the federal government is finally fighting fraud in their programs,” noting that Medicare accounts for approximately 80 percent of the hospice market.
The National Partnership for Healthcare and Hospice Innovation (NPHI), which represents nonprofit, community-based hospice providers, had urged CMS Administrator Dr. Mehmet Oz in March to implement a pause of exactly this kind. NPHI CEO Tom Koutsoumpas argued at the time that the fraud crisis stemmed from “a subset of providers exploiting the healthcare system, not a failure of the hospice model of care itself,” and called for any moratorium to be paired with a clear path forward for legitimate operators.
State-level hospice associations had urged a different approach in April, warning that a national moratorium could restrict access to care in underserved areas and create undue burdens for law-abiding organizations attempting to enter the market.
The moratorium applies to new Medicare enrollments only. Providers already enrolled in Medicare are not affected, and beneficiaries currently receiving home health or hospice services are expected to face no disruption to care.
Why This Matters for Home Care
The federal crackdown on Medicare-enrolled home health and hospice providers has intensified scrutiny of who families can rely on for in-home care services — and underscores how important it is to source home care equipment from verified, established suppliers. For families arranging care at home independently, SonderCare’s home hospital beds offer hospital-grade safety and positioning capabilities designed for aging in place without dependence on third-party service agencies.
Sources: Reuters / KELO-AM (May 13, 2026); National Partnership for Healthcare and Hospice Innovation press release (March 27, 2026); Home Health Care News (April 2026)
