17-07-2025
Letters to the Editor: If we're expected to take Medicare fraud crimes seriously, Trump should be too
To the editor: Guest contributors Mehmet Oz and Kim Brandt are raising the flag regarding Medicare fraud ('Medicare fraud has gone global. It'll take a nationwide effort to stop it,' July 15). However, does Oz know President Trump has pardoned some of the biggest Medicare fraudsters? During Trump's first term, he granted clemency to at least 10 healthcare executives and doctors convicted of large-scale Medicare fraud schemes.
In May 2025, Trump commuted the sentence of Lawrence Duran, who was convicted in 2011 for his role in a $205-million Medicare fraud scheme. Philip Esformes, a Florida healthcare executive convicted in 2019 of a $1.3-billion Medicare/Medicaid fraud scheme, would see his 20-year sentence end after just 4.5 years when Trump gave him a commutation in 2020. Salomon Melgen, a Florida eye doctor whose clinics defrauded Medicare of $42 million, was serving a 17-year sentence when Trump gave him a commutation. These are just a few of the people in the long list of healthcare fraudsters that Trump either pardoned or handed commutations to.
So, Oz, I would suggest that you talk to the president about letting criminals who prey on the government programs that you are overseeing walk before taking any further steps in warning us about Medicare fraud.
Pam Cwiklo, Camarillo
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To the editor: I applaud the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services for creating the Fraud Defense Operations Center in an attempt to diminish the incredible amount of fraud perpetrated against Medicare and Medicaid. However, the Trump administration should not be taking credit for 'changing that' process to make Medicare less vulnerable.
It was the Health Care and Education Reconciliation Act of 2010 passed by President Obama that amended the Social Security Act, under which Medicare and Medicaid exist, to move from a 'pay and chase' model to proactively preventing payments. The Center for Program Integrity at CMS has been preventing payments from occurring for almost 15 years now. It is disingenuous to claim that the Trump administration is just now starting this effort without acknowledging steps taken previously.
John Winkelman, Rancho Mission Viejo
