RFK Jr. Says Biden Admin Gutted Anti-Fraud Staff Overseeing $2.2 Trillion In Payments

Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. criticized his predecessor, Xavier Becerra, arguing that staffing reductions within the department's program integrity division left federal health programs vulnerable to widespread fraud and contributed to billions of dollars in improper payments.

Speaking during a recent event, Kennedy described what he said he found after taking over the Department of Health and Human Services, which oversees trillions of dollars in annual federal health care spending.

"My predecessor Xavier Becerra. He, when he came into my agency, there were only 80 people in program integrity. 80 people."

Kennedy said those employees were responsible for monitoring an enormous volume of federal transactions.

"This is for 50 states and five territories. These are the people who are monitoring $2.2 trillion in payments annually from my agency, we do 4 million transactions a day."

According to Kennedy, he believes the staffing level was already inadequate before additional personnel were reassigned.

"There's only 80 people looking at those."

He then alleged that Becerra significantly reduced the size of the unit after taking office.

"Xavier Becerra came in and transferred 76 of them out, so that when I came in, there's only six people who are in charge of all program integrity for my department."

Kennedy argued that the reduction in oversight created an opportunity for fraudulent actors to exploit federal health care programs.

"And it was an invitation for the fraudsters to come in and steal everything."

He pointed to hospice programs in Los Angeles as one example of what he described as widespread fraud...

Kennedy described the policy as fundamentally flawed and said his administration has eliminated it.