By ALI SWENSON, Associated Press
NEW YORK — A new front in the battle between California Gov. Gavin Newsom and the Trump administration has opened over a video in which Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services Administrator Dr. Mehmet Oz visits Los Angeles and alleges members of its Armenian community orchestrated large-scale health care fraud.
The dayslong public scuffle on social media escalated on Thursday evening, when Newsom announced his office was filing a civil rights complaint with the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services accusing Oz of discrimination.
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Newsom’s office argued in the complaint that Oz “spewed baseless and racially charged allegations” that risked chilling participation in hospice and home care programs among the community targeted. The governor’s office noted the claims had “already caused real-world harm” by dampening business at an Armenian bakery that is shown in the video.
Oz and CMS didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment on the complaint or the content of the video, and they haven’t publicly shared details that confirm the fraud being alleged.
The video posted on social media earlier this week shows the CMS administrator visiting the Van Nuys neighborhood of Los Angeles and pointing to a four-block radius that he says is home to 42 hospices, suggesting potential fraud. He references a business that he says was part of a $16 million fraud scheme.Then, while standing in front of a building that includes an Armenian bakery, he alleges that roughly $3.5 billion in hospice and home care fraud has taken place in Los Angeles and “quite a bit of it” was run by “the Russian Armenian mafia.”
Oz describes the Armenian script on the businesses’ signs while the camera pans to the bakery.
“You notice the lettering and language behind me is of that dialect,” says Oz, whose parents emigrated to the U.S. from Turkey. He also claims there “has not been a lot of attention on these problems” in California.
Turkey and Armenia have long been strained by historic grievances and Turkey’s alliance with Azerbaijan. The neighboring countries have no formal diplomatic ties, and their joint border has remained closed since the 1990s, though late last year they agreed to simplify visa procedures in an effort to normalize ties.
Newsom disputed the claims in Oz’s video and noted on social media that California had revoked more than 280 hospice licenses and banned new licenses starting in 2022 because of concerns about fraud. Then the two leaders exchanged multiple sharp attacks in a back-and-forth on social media.
The feud is among many that have sprung up between Newsom, seen as a potential Democratic presidential candidate for 2028, and the Republican administration of President Donald Trump. Newsom and Trump have clashed over issues ranging from the federal administration’s National Guard deployment in Los Angeles to the president’s efforts to block California’s 2035 ban on new gas-powered cars, a nationwide first.
Oz’s video also points to a larger Trump administration effort to spotlight fraud around the country. That effort comes after allegations of fraud involving day care centers run by Somali residents in Minneapolis prompted a massive immigration crackdown in the Midwestern city, resulting in widespread protests. Two people have been fatally shot in the city by federal agents this month.
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