WASHINGTON, D.C. – Empower Oversight is asking District of Columbia governmental agencies about their efforts to hold accountable those defrauding the Medicaid program, and what the departments are doing to deter future fraud. The questions come amid concerns that despite the Community Support Program being “rife with fraudulent claiming among a significant minority of providers,” according to agency leadership, very little accountability is taking place among the department and with the organizations and companies performing the fraudulent activities.
“We appreciate the DC government taking steps to prosecute some of the bad actors who are fraudulently taking taxpayer money, and want to work with them to ensure that these activities don’t happen again. People must be held accountable before they can simply turn to another scheme to continue their illegal behavior,” Leavitt said.
In the Freedom of Information Act requests to the DC Inspector General, Department of Behavioral Health, and Department of Health Care Finance, Empower Oversight president Tristan Leavitt asks for documents and data to help hold accountable those responsible for the fraudulent activity and those who allowed it to happen, help recover as much of the money as possible, and ensure that safeguards are put in place to keep the fraud from happening in the future.
Among the unusual activity cited in the letters were:
- From fiscal year 2019 to fiscal year 2024, the number of community support consumers grew by 87 percent and the average cost per consumer by 423 percent, compared with 43 and 50 percent for other behavioral health programs.
- The number of consumers associated with billing at unusual high volumes rose from 2,333 to 13,743.
- The District paid roughly $284 million for community support in 2024, about four times its 2019 level. While the District has about 0.2 percent of the nation’s population, District-based providers received nearly 30 percent of all Medicaid spending nationwide under the procedure code the District uses for that service, according to an analysis by economist Stan Vrueger.
Links to the three letters can be found below.
The letter to the Department of Health Care Finance can be found here.
The letter to the Department of Behavioral Health can be found here.
The letter to the Inspector General can be found here.
The letters are the latest in Empower Oversight’s ongoing, multi-state investigation into the misuse of federal funds. The organization has already filed similar requests:
- Empower Oversight pressed the California Department of Public Health for comprehensive records related to hospice fraud and oversight failures, focusing on how the agency responded, or failed to respond, to known fraud indicators, including suspicious clustering of hospice providers at single addresses, abnormal billing patterns, and unusually high reimbursement rates.
- In January 2026, Empower Oversight filed a records request with the Minnesota Department of Children, Youth, and Families targeting that state’s Child Care Assistance Program (CCAP), which receives approximately $185 million in federal funds annually. Minnesota was among five states subject to a federal funding freeze and has faced sustained scrutiny over empty childcare facilities and improper payments identified by federal inspectors.
- Empower Oversight filed a Freedom of Information Law request with the New York State Office of Children and Family Services, seeking records related to the oversight and integrity of New York’s own CCAP, a program that distributed more than $1.1 billion in federal funds in fiscal year 2025.
- Empower Oversight filed a public records request with New York’s Center for Hospice and Palliative Care, the state agency responsible for regulating the hospice industry, seeking documents that shed light on potential systemic failures in hospice oversight, and on how the agency has identified, responded to, or declined to act on known fraud indicators. The letter can be found here.
-30-