White House Expands Medicaid Fraud Probe, Turns Spotlight To New York

AP: Trump Administration Launches Medicaid Fraud Probe In New York
President Donald Trump’s administration is expanding its crackdown on state Medicaid programs to New York, launching a fraud probe in the state a week after it said it was freezing nearly $260 million in Medicaid funding in Minnesota over similar accusations. Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services Administrator Dr. Mehmet Oz announced Tuesday that the Trump administration identified concerning trends in New York’s Medicaid program and demanded that state officials provide details about their handling of fraud, waste and abuse within 30 days or risk deferred payments. (Swenson and Izaguirre, 3/5)

CalMatters: Trump’s Medicaid Work Mandate Could Kick Thousands Of Homeless Californians Off Coverage
On a brisk January morning, physician assistant Brett Feldman searched the streets of Los Angeles for patients, knocking on car windows and peering into tents. It was the day after a winter storm had doused the city, and many of the unhoused people Feldman usually treats had moved to find somewhere dry. Feldman leads the street medicine team at the USC Keck School of Medicine, providing primary care to thousands of L.A.’s homeless individuals. Many have chronic conditions, mental health disorders, wounds or other medical issues; they need health care desperately. (Hwang, 3/5)

The New York Times: 180,000 New Yorkers May Lose Food Stamp Benefits Under New Work Rules 
Social workers are scrambling to alert recipients and help them find jobs before their aid is eliminated under President Trump’s sweeping domestic policy law. (Haag, 3/6)

KFF Health News: KFF Health News’ ‘What The Health?’: 40 Years Of Health Policy
This month marks host Julie Rovner’s 40th anniversary reporting on health policy in Washington. Over that time, she’s covered a vast range of topics, from the response to the AIDS epidemic, to Medicare and Medicaid changes, to the fight over the “Patients’ Bill of Rights” — and a half-dozen major reform fights, including the introduction of the Affordable Care Act and the efforts to repeal it. (Rovner, 3/5)

In other health news about the Trump administration —

NPR: Tylenol Use By Pregnant Women In ERs Dropped After Trump Autism Warning
President Trump told pregnant women in September 2025 to avoid Tylenol because taking it would increase their babies' risk of autism: "Taking Tylenol is not good — I'll say it: It's not good." Doctors and scientists quickly said the data didn't support the president's claim, but emergency room orders for Tylenol, or acetaminophen, for pregnant patients went down 10% in the months that followed, according to a new study in The Lancet. There was no change in the acetaminophen orders for comparable women who weren't pregnant. (Lupkin, 3/5)

MedPage Today: Med Schools, HHS Announce Nutrition Education Initiative
A group of 53 medical schools pledged to increase the amount of time spent on medical students' nutrition education starting this fall, HHS announced Thursday. "I'm pleased to announce a transformative breakthrough in medical education," HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. said at a press conference at the department's headquarters. "It will reshape the way that we train doctors in our country and deliver on President Trump's promise to end the chronic disease epidemic in America." (Frieden, 3/5)

KFF Health News: Six Federal Scientists Run Out By Trump Talk About The Work Left Undone
Marc Ernstoff, a physician who has pioneered immunotherapy research and treatments for cancer patients, said his work as a federal scientist proved untenable under the Trump administration. Philip Stewart, a Rocky Mountain Laboratories researcher focused on tick-borne diseases, said he retired two years earlier than planned because of hurdles that made it too challenging to do his job well. (Pradhan and Houghton, 3/6)

KFF Health News: The People — And Research — Lost In The NIH Exodus
Sylvia Chou specializes in communication between patients and their health care providers, and social media’s role in public health. She joined the federal government in 2007 as a fellow and became a civil servant in 2010. She left her National Cancer Institute job in January, she said, because the “work is no longer based on facts or truth.” After President Donald Trump returned to office, Chou said, health communication scientists like her were falsely accused of “essentially doing propaganda work.” (Pradhan and Houghton, 3/6)

Politico: Why One Of The World's Biggest Animal Rights Group Is Praising Trump
Robert F. Kennedy Jr. eats steak for breakfast, and has been accused by family members of blending up mice and chickens to feed his hawks and cutting off a dead whale’s head to bring it home. But he has nonetheless found common cause with one of America’s most uncompromising animal rights groups. The health secretary’s kinship with People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals — which has reported popping champagne at its Virginia headquarters to celebrate — stems from Kennedy’s determination to end animal testing. (Gardner, 3/5)

In news about HHS chief RFK Jr. —

NBC News: RFK Jr. Vowed To Restore Public Trust In Health. It's Not Working, A New Survey Suggests
Americans are losing confidence in the nation’s public health agencies, according to a survey from the Annenberg Public Policy Center of the University of Pennsylvania. The survey of 1,650 adults, conducted last month, found that on matters of health, a majority of Americans say they have far more confidence in their own doctors, pediatricians and career scientists at federal agencies than the political appointees charged with overseeing those scientists. (Edwards, 3/5)

KFF Health News: This Doctor-Senator Who Backed RFK Jr. Now Faces A Fight For His Job — And His Legacy
The ambitious liver doctor would go just about anywhere in his home state to give people the hepatitis B vaccine. Bill Cassidy offered jabs to thousands of inmates at Louisiana’s maximum-security prison in the early 2000s. A decade before that, he set up vaccine clinics in middle schools, a model hailed nationally as a success. “He got that whole generation immunized in East Baton Rouge,” said Holley Galland, a retired doctor who worked with Cassidy vaccinating schoolchildren. (Seitz, 3/6)

Newsweek: RFK Jr. Responds To Backlash Over Dunkin’ Comments
Secretary of Health and Human Services (HHS) Robert F. Kennedy Jr has responded to public backlash about his announcement that Dunkin' Donuts will be asked to hand over "safety data," in a call to review the health impact of its beverages. Last week, the health secretary said at a rally in Austin: "We’re going to ask Dunkin’ Donuts and Starbucks, ‘Show us the safety data that show that it’s okay for a teenage girl to drink an iced coffee with 115 grams of sugar in it.'" He added: "I don’t think they’re going to be able to do it." (Laws, 3/6)