The Feds busted a North Carolina "homeless advocate" yesterday for an innovative fraud on Medicaid, using homeless people, which cost CMS at least $ 14.5 million:
Feds seize Charlotte housing advocate Cedric Dean's assets, allege multimillion-dollar Medicaid scheme By Steve Harrison | Published October 16, 2025
The U.S. Attorney’s Office on Thursday accused prominent Charlotte housing activist Cedric Dean of health care fraud in a civil court filing. The federal government said it was seizing property owned by Dean, and WSOC-TV reported agents raided his home in the Palisades in southwest Mecklenburg County.
The filing accused Dean of operating a scheme under which his group would acquire Medicaid beneficiary ID numbers from people at homeless shelters, halfway houses and encampments. He would then use those IDs to submit false claims for medical services, supportive housing, and treatment that they did not actually receive, according to the government. The filing says that Dean's group instead "provided free or discounted temporary housing, a meal, a payment, or other de minimis benefits."
The government said Dean and his "conspirators," who were not named, obtained “millions of dollars in fraud proceeds, which they funneled through numerous accounts.” They used that money to buy houses and other property, according to the government's filing.
“The conspirators billed exorbitant amounts for services that the conspirators could not, within the bounds of space and time, provide; and conducted billing that was 894% more than the provider that submitted the second highest number of similar claims, according to a peer comparison study,” the filing said. “All the while, the conspirators denied services to homeless individuals who could not provide Medicaid information useful to the conspirators for purposes of billing.”
Dean's company, Cedric Dean Holdings, billed Medicaid for about $14.5 million and was reimbursed for almost $9 million in nine months, the filing says. The filing also says "law enforcement has interviewed no less than eight witnesses" who worked for Dean or lived in his facilities.
The property seized by the government, according to the federal filing, includes three checking accounts, a Chevy Silverado, a GMC Yukon Denali, a GMC Yukon XL, two motorhomes allegedly used to recruit homeless people to sell their Medicaid ID numbers, two houses in Shelby and two houses in Charlotte.
The government's complaint against Dean is a civil filing and does not include any criminal charges.
Dean could not immediately be reached on Thursday by WFAE.
Tiawana Brown ally
Dean is perhaps best known as an ally of Charlotte City Council member Tiawana Brown. She was indicted on different fraud charges in May, accused of participating in a scheme to obtain fraudulent COVID-19 relief loans. Dean attended Brown’s news conference after the indictment and fiercely defended her.
Brown was not mentioned in the civil filing against Dean. She has pleaded not guilty and is awaiting trial.
A 2019 Charlotte Observer profile of Dean said he was convicted of robbery at 16 and served five years in state prison. After being released, he was convicted of selling crack cocaine, and spent more than 20 years in prison on that drug charge. He was released in 2017.
In 2019, he was the guest of Charlotte Democratic Rep. Alma Adams at the State of the Union speech in Washington, D.C.
At the time, Dean was working in a nonprofit to keep people out of prison.
His LinkedIn page today describes him as “a thugological expert, the creator of Deanism — the theory of how a thug is created and cured and the founder of Save a Child Month. Dean knows first-hand what thuggery means in his own life — living a true thug-life story. By age 23 he earned himself a federal prison sentence of Life without parole, plus 5 years, however, in 2017, it was reduced to immediate release. He has since rehabilitated his thugological life and now devotes himself full-time helping thugs and goons understand the forces behind their thuggery and gangsterism. He teaches them how to make things right — thugologically, emotionally and socially.”
NC should put Medicaid out of reach for thugs like these with a universal HSA program. Finances don't get much more fraud-proof than IRS and banking rules! Michigan recipients would benefit from the same protections.
Failing that, Montana's plain-vanilla approach to limiting overall spending might be a good start.
Montana is on the correct track for Medicaid reform
Dr. Roger Stark | Sep 15, 2025
The Treasure State is taking important steps to help control the exploding costs of Medicaid while providing critical care to the neediest. Montana is submitting a 1115 Medicaid Demonstration waiver application to allow experimentation with reform. Other states should follow this good example.
As explained by Governor Gianforte, “The safety net of Medicaid should be there for those who truly need it, but if everyone is allowed to climb upon the net, it will collapse. By requiring healthy adults to engage in work-related activities and cost sharing, we can help preserve the long-term sustainability of the Medicaid program and ensure that this critical health coverage remains available for those who need it most.”
The state’s Department of Public Health and Human Services Director, Charlie Brereton, said, “Montanans who can find employment and improve or gain new skills while maintaining access to essential health care services are best positioned to support themselves and their families. We are committed to promptly implementing work requirements and premiums for individuals enrolled in Medicaid expansion, as we firmly believe these program elements will foster self-sufficiency and lead to independent, healthier futures for enrollees.”
Medicaid began in 1965 as a health insurance safety net for the most vulnerable Americans. It was financially set up as a 50/50 joint state and federal entitlement. Obamacare greatly expanded the program to any lower-income, able-bodied adult ages 18 to 64 years, with the federal government contributing 90 percent of the costs.
The original Obamacare law required all states to expand their Medicaid programs. The United States Supreme Court ruled that states had the option of expanding Medicaid under Obamacare. Montana, along with 39 other states, chose to expand their program.
The Obamacare law allows states to experiment with innovative Medicaid reforms by using a federal waiver system. After being turned down by the Biden Administration, Montana has reapplied for a waiver that would require “working-age” and “able-bodied adults” in the expansion program to pay a premium and to seek work or community service. As stated by Director Brereton, “the waiver aims to reduce government dependency and encourage self-sufficiency and upward economic mobility for low-income adults.”
In inflation-adjusted dollars, Medicaid has exploded from $1 billion in the first year to almost $1 trillion last year and is now one of the top three budget items for every state. Over 20 percent of Americans are now in the entitlement, pushing it to unsustainability in its current form.
Common-sense Medicaid reforms are necessary to ensure that the program will continue for those who are the most vulnerable. Like welfare reform in the 1990s, Medicaid should be considered a temporary entitlement. A work requirement and a small co-pay offer a path to responsibility and provide a potential course to not only get recipients off the entitlement but also give them access to a better economic future.
Montana officials should be congratulated for their Medicaid waiver application. Let’s hope other states follow their lead.
In this photo from July 29, 2020, the Claiborne Avenue Expressway looms over St. Louis Cemetery No. 2 which was established in 1823 in New Orleans. (Jarvis DeBerry/Louisiana Illuminator)
A review of how Louisiana keeps its Medicaid rolls up to date found the state paid out benefits for more than 1,000 people over the past six years after they died. Nearly $10 million was paid to managed care organizations over that period, even though no health care services were actually provided.
The Louisiana Legislative Auditor conducted its study as part of Gov. Jeff Landry’s Fiscal Responsibility Program, which he has branded LA DOGE. It looked specifically at how state health officials keep track of when Medicaid beneficiaries die and whether outside data sources could help that process.
When auditors used those additional sources, they found 1,072 beneficiaries who died between February 2019 and March 2025 and approximately $9.6 million spent collectively on their Medicaid coverage. Auditors said the actual spending figure is higher because their calculations only included dental coverage payments – and not health coverage – for the final eight months reviewed.
According to the audit report, the Louisiana Department of Health relies on federal and state data sources to identify dead Medicaid beneficiaries. They include Louisiana Vital Records, the Social Security Administration, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, the state Department of Children and Family Services and the managed care organizations the state pays to deliver Medicaid offerings.
For its analysis, the Louisiana Legislative Auditor’s staff also used obituaries and identified 511 dead Medicaid beneficiaries the state missed in its reviews. Payouts to managed care organizations for this group totaled $5.22 million over the six-year period, and the median time between the beneficiary’s death and the most recent monthly payout to their managed care provider was more than 20 months.
Auditors found 168 more deceased Medicaid beneficiaries through the Social Security Administration’s Death Master File, a source the state health department has not used. The median time between the beneficiary’s death and the latest payment in this group was almost 800 days, according to the audit.
The Legislative Auditor recommended the Louisiana Department of Health determine whether it should use third-party data sources as part of its eligibility determination process to identify deceased Medicaid beneficiaries. Out of the $9.6 million Louisiana paid for Medicaid services never provided, the audit identified $7.6 million through third-party sources.
In his July 30 response to the Legislative Auditor, state Health Secretary Bruce Greenstein agreed with the audit’s recommendation and said his department was “in the process of working with the U.S. Department of Treasury to gain the necessary approvals to receive the Social Security Administration Death Master File.”
The health department was presented with the auditor’s findings in May. In June, approximately $4 million in state payments to Medicaid managed care organizations were to be withheld to recoup part of the money paid on behalf of dead beneficiaries, the audit report said.
Strip Clubs, Sex Changes, Rental Aid: What One Lawmaker Found in Medicaid Spending Shocked Him Fred Lucas | November 02, 2025
Oregon state Rep. Dwayne Yunker began asking questions when he discovered the state was using tax dollars to bring developmentally disabled clients to a strip club this past summer.
Yunker—a Republican lawmaker in a very blue state with a Democrat super majority in the legislature—has exposed this and other controversial Medicaid spending in the state that has little or nothing to do with medical or health issues.
On Monday, he will be in Washington meeting with members of Congress and Trump administration officials about looking into how his state—and likely others—are spending Medicaid dollars. Medicaid is a joint federal-state program intended to cover health care coverage for the poor or disabled.
The Oregon Department of Human Services informed the lawmaker in mid-August that denying the strip club outing could jeopardize federal Medicaid funding, Yunker told The Daily Signal.
Specifically, the state agency referred to a federal law that requires state Medicaid programs to help disabled people integrate into the community.
“The adult day care [program] has taken developmentally disabled clients to strip clubs and bars,” Yunker said. “They say they are integrating them with the community. But we are not talking about taking them to a park or the museum.”
Yunker supports the Trump administration’s reforms to Medicaid in the One Big Beautiful Bill Act that include work requirements to receive benefits.
In an Aug. 18 letter to Dr. Mehmet Oz, administrator for the federal Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services, the Oregon lawmaker noted the strip club was only one issue of many with the Oregon Medicaid program.
He noted in the letter that $2.3 million in Medicaid funds were paid in the last year to an organization that housed a Venezuelan gang member charged with kidnapping, torture, and attempted murder. Further, Medicaid reimbursements have paid for “sex change” operations on minors.
The specific matter on the strip club appears to be resolved, Caprice Knapp, principal deputy director of the Centers for Medicaid & CHIP Services, told Yunker in a Sept. 19 letter.
Knapp said in the letter that “nothing in this or any other Medicaid regulation sanctions or requires taxpayer funding to be used for activities like those you uncovered in Oregon.”
In September, Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services staff discussed the matter in a call with the Oregon Health Authority and the Oregon Department of Human Services, Knapp said in the letter.
“On that call, they were able to confirm that this voluntary activity in the community was not part of an individual’s person-centered service plan and the provider did not bill
Medicaid for this activity,” Knapp’s letter continued. “These state agencies also understand that the HCBS [Medicaid home- and community-based services] regulation was inappropriately characterized as requiring the activities you highlighted. Based on this discussion, my staff is comfortable that this issue has been resolved.”
The Oregon Department of Human Services did not respond to phone and email inquiries for this story.
Yunker said such problems aren’t limited to his state.
“Oregon, California, and Washington are almost the same, each state is trying to one up the other with how much of other people’s money they can spend,” he said. “What you’re seeing in New York City has been happening out west for a long time. They just don’t always call it socialism.”
What happened in Oregon “isn’t just a one-off scandal,” said Tony Woodlief, senior executive vice president with the State Policy Network, a network of conservative and libertarian state-based think tanks.
“The real problem is that Americans are too often misled about what federal law actually requires,” Woodlief told The Daily Signal. “State bureaucrats sometimes hide behind Washington as an excuse to push their own agendas past elected leaders. Other times, federal ideologues issue unauthorized directives that twist the law to advance policies no one voted for. Either way, unelected bureaucrats—not the people—end up in charge.”
Woodlief said this problem isn’t limited to Medicaid programs in states and added, “Thank goodness for champions like Rep. Yunker who are willing to ask the hard questions and hold the system accountable.”
Oregon announced two years ago that it was allowing illegal immigrants to access Medicaid benefits, saying, “As of July 1, 2023, people of all ages who meet income and other criteria qualify for full OHP [Oregon Medicaid] benefits and other services and supports, no matter their immigration status.”
The part of the funding paying for illegal immigrants comes from state Medicaid dollars, not federal Medicaid dollars. The state also notes online that Medicaid dollars can go for temporary rental assistance as well as nutrition assistance.
In August, Oregon Gov. Tina Kotek, a Democrat, denounced Republicans’ federal Medicaid reforms, saying they will make Americans and Oregonians “sicker, hungrier, and less prosperous.”
“I am going to work with Oregon lawmakers and community partners to do all that we can to stand up for Oregonians and get through this needless, callous hardship,” Kotek said.
In his letter to Oz, Yunker wrote, “The real hardship is what my constituents endure under Oregon’s broken Medicaid program.”
“We’ve barely scratched the surface of the broken Medicaid system,” he said.
