Medicare’s new approach to halting fraud is paying off

Last year, we wrote in the Los Angeles Times that the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services was done chasing criminals after we’d already handed them money. We said we were building something different — a prevention-first operation that would detect and stop fraud before the check cleared, not attempt to claw back lost funds years later. Skeptics had reason to doubt. Government agencies announce transformations all the time. The results usually don’t follow. So here are the numbers: In fiscal year 2025, Medicare savings from the prevention of fraud, waste and abuse hit $42 billion — an almost 60%...