Since the beginning of the second Trump administration, Medicaid and Medicare have been hot topics, with the president claiming widespread fraud in the programs. In February, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) announced the Comprehensive Regulations to Uncover Suspicious Healthcare, or CRUSH, initiative the agency says can root out fraud in Medicare and Medicaid. “Healthcare fraud is real, documented, and devastating—and stealing from people when they are vulnerable or seeking care they need isn’t just fraud, it can cost them their future,” CMS Administrator Mehmet Oz said in a statement shared with Healthcare Brew, adding that “CMS is going to drive these predators out of the health system.” However, experts say that despite claims of rampant fraud, there’s actually no reliable measure of how widespread the problem is, primarily due to the fact that it can only be detected after the fact. Plus, much of what has been portrayed as Medicare or Medicaid fraud are actually improper payments—which are essentially administrative errors that led to inaccurate payments—rather than a malicious scheme intended to cheat the payers, according to health policy research firm KFF. Here’s how fraud differs from abuse and improper payments.—MA | 
