COLUMBUS, Ohio — Ohio Republican gubernatorial candidate Vivek Ramaswamy wants to overhaul the state Medicaid system to combat unproven allegations of fraud, as GOP leaders blame Gov. Mike DeWine for a lack of oversight.
At a hotel in downtown Columbus, Ramaswamy, flanked by his running mate, Senate President Rob McColley (R-Napoleon), addressed the need to fight waste, fraud and abuse of public dollars.
"When you have criminals, fraudsters, thieves claiming money for themselves, it diverts money away from those for whom these programs were intended, and that's a problem," Ramaswamy said.
After the conservative outlet The Daily Wire published a story alleging rampant fraud, Ramaswamy has announced his plans to fight the not-yet-proven abuse.
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"Our state of Ohio does not yet have the full aligned incentive to make the prosecution of Medicaid fraud a top priority, as it will be for my administration," Ramaswamy said.
Legislative leaders claim that home healthcare providers paid by Medicaid are not doing their jobs.
"It's something that we need leadership in place to make sure that we are taking this issue seriously," McColley, one of the top leaders in the state, said.
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Repeatedly, DeWine and his cabinet were accused of not following through with investigating fraud.
DeWine has denied any widespread issue, but said there have been nearly 1,100 Medicaid fraud convictions since 2019, when he took office.
"I understand that there may be some people around Ohio who are just learning that there is Medicaid fraud that there needs to be consistent work to fight against," DeWine's spokesperson Dan Tierney said in an interview. "Mike DeWine has never been one of them. He's been fighting Medicaid fraud consistently since he took office as attorney general in 2011 and has continued doing so as governor."
Days before the article was published, DeWine sent a letter to the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services to partner with the Trump Administration, trying to use a more stringent revalidation process.
This week, the governor also issued an executive order on tools that he says will help prevent fraud, such as requiring providers that are at a higher risk for committing fraud to revalidate enrollment more frequently.
Since 2011, DeWine has helped get 2,378 Medicaid fraud indictments and 2,216 convictions, his team said. Altogether, $645 million has been recovered, the state reports.
"There has been no real evidence [of fraud]," House Minority Leader Dani Isaacsohn (D-Cincinnati) said.
If the allegations are legitimate, Isaacsohn said Republicans are responsible.
"The idea that people who are currently in government, who have been running the government for the last decade, would stand up and say there's fraud, waste and abuse, it's rampant, the fingers should point right back at themselves and say 'They have failed to do their jobs,'" he said.
More than that, I brought up to House Speaker Matt Huffman (R-Lima) that in the last budget, he got rid of the Joint Medicaid Oversight Committee, a body that looked into waste, fraud and abuse.
"If there is fraud, how are you not responsible?" I asked both him and McColley.
Huffman responded, going through a history of how, in 2021, he created the Senate Medicaid Committee, and then, in 2025, he made the House Medicaid Committee.
"But to create a separate body and have a separate office, and it sounded good when we started, I think, for those folks responsible for creating it, but essentially wasn't effective in trying to get to the bottom of these things," Huffman said.
Each Medicaid committee hears bills about the system; their goal isn't oversight.
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For some providers, like MonArk ABA Therapy in Northwest Ohio, they worry that making drastic changes to Medicaid will mean less access.
"We're the ones that are taking the brunt of that punishment," cofounder Sheiletha Quinn said. "These types of overhauls, when you can't see what it does to a small business in rural communities, that are out there doing the right thing — it makes us look like we're not."
The Medicaid process is already confusing, she said, and the loss of the oversight committee has made things even worse. The GOP, along with cutting that body, has been trying to slash Medicaid each budget cycle.
"Do you think that it's possible that this is just another way to cut Medicaid?" I asked McColley, while following after him as he walked to his car after the event.
"No, no, these are allegations of fraud that should be taken seriously. These are taxpayer dollars. It's not a way to cut Medicaid," he responded. "I think we've already seen that there's overspending in Medicaid in the system, just based on the resources and the information we have been able to get."
The governor’s team says that they are investigating, but reminds that nothing has been proven yet.
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