Florida’s sweeping Medicaid fraud crackdown has helped drive a nearly $1 billion reduction in projected annual spending on behavioral therapy services alone, according to state officials, after investigators uncovered suspicious billing practices.

Tallahassee’s internal crackdown — which included discoveries of providers billing Medicaid for more hours than there are in a day — comes amid heightened federal scrutiny of Medicaid fraud, including investigations and payment reviews involving Minnesota.

The DeSantis administration said its approach aims to stop suspicious Medicaid claims before taxpayer dollars are paid out rather than trying to recover improper payments afterward. The strategy mirrors a call from HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. to move away from traditional “pay-and-chase” models.

“This year, we announced the most significant Medicaid integrity initiative in the history of our state, and today, I was proud to announce some of the results from these efforts,” Gov. Ron DeSantis said in a news release.

VANCE TURNS UP HEAT ON STATES WITH FEDERAL CASH THREAT OVER MEDICAID FRAUD CRACKDOWN

More than 220 Medicaid providers have been terminated for fraud, waste or abuse, while more than 260 have faced payment restrictions or suspensions. The state has also referred more than 150 suspected fraud cases to the attorney general’s office over the past year.

Annual Medicaid spending on Applied Behavior Analysis (ABA), a therapy commonly used for children with autism, had been projected to reach $3.86 billion but is now expected to total $2.88 billion in fiscal year 2026-27, according to the governor’s office. Officials attributed the nearly $980 million reduction to a combination of fraud enforcement, managed care and utilization management efforts.

Florida’s Agency for Health Care Administration (AHCA) told Fox News Digital that its expanded monitoring uncovered providers billing Medicaid for services through every weekend and holiday for months, including instances in which providers billed for more than 24 hours of services in a single day.

“Protecting Medicaid means protecting the people it was created to serve,” AHCA Secretary Shevaun Harris said in a statement.

FRAUD EXPERT EXPOSES HOW HIDDEN NETWORKS DROVE MINNESOTA FRAUD, OTHER MAJOR SCAMS: ‘CRIMINAL ENTERPRISE’

“For children, pregnant women, the disabled, and our seniors, it means making sure they have access to high-quality care while ensuring taxpayer dollars are not lost to fraud or abuse. AHCA will continue taking decisive action to strengthen program integrity, hold bad actors accountable and safeguard these critical services for Floridians,” she said.

Harris’ agency provided additional details on its crackdown to Fox News Digital, including how its new fraud-protection mechanisms work.

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Through a pilot program with identity-verification firm SentiLink, Florida is screening for stolen or fake identities and hidden ownership structures among Medicaid providers. Separately, the state has imposed enrollment moratoriums on certain high-risk provider categories.

AHCA also told Fox News Digital that it has issued more than 1,000 adverse decisions involving Medicaid provider enrollment or re-enrollment since January 2026, part of its effort to prevent suspicious providers from entering or remaining in the program.

The agency has conducted 400 site visits to providers since January, including providers in high-risk categories such as applied behavior analysis, medical equipment and adult day care.

“Medicaid fraud is a national problem, and it is growing more sophisticated everywhere,” AHCA told Fox News Digital.

“Florida is not waiting to be told what to do. We are building the model: prevent fraud at the front door, verify every provider, and follow the data. We welcome partnership with CMS and other states, because a fraudulent provider stopped in Florida is a scheme that does not move on to the next state.”

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Comedian Jon Stewart urged Democrats not to pursue impeachment proceedings against President Donald Trump if they regain control of the House and Senate, arguing on his podcast that he doesn’t want to see “performative” hearings.

During a question-and-answer segment at the end of Stewart’s “The Weekly Show” podcast, he was asked whether Democrats should seek to impeach Trump if they regain control of Congress in the midterm elections.

He said he wanted to see Democrats make a full-scale effort to rebalance the economy, and said he didn’t want to see performative hearings.

“I don’t want to see a f—ing five-act performative play of House hearings,” Stewart said. “I just don’t want to see it. I don’t want to see everybody having the opportunity to pantomime accountability because you know they’re actually not going to bring it.”

STEWART EXPECTS SCHUMER, JEFFRIES TO DISAPPOINT IF THE DEMS WIN BACK THE HOUSE AND SENATE

“You want to do some investigations of some s—, that’s great,” he continued. “But on the triage list of what’s wrong in this country, it is, ‘I’m sorry, sir, you’re going to have to stay in the waiting room because this guy just got shot, and it sounds to me like you just have a sore throat.’ Like do the s— that actually is killing people right now.”

Stewart added that he wanted Democrats to “govern.”

“You want to do some things that are ancillary, a little side project, you want to do the investigations as a hobby, knock yourself out. Fix s—,” he said.

“Jon Stewart is tapping into a real tension within the Democratic electorate,” Lauryn Killian, CEO of Killian Campaigns, told Fox News Digital in a statement. “There will certainly be Democrats who want impeachment, particularly those who believe the Trump administration warrants aggressive congressional scrutiny.”

“But there is a meaningful difference between legitimate accountability and turning impeachment into another chapter of the anti-Trump resistance movement,” she continued. “If Democrats take back Congress, voters will expect them to actually govern, not spend two years trying to undo the last election.” 

HOUSE DEMS PLOT TRUMP INVESTIGATION BLITZ IF THEY SEIZE MAJORITY

Killian said the smarter political strategy would be to look into “wrongdoing and pursue accountability where the facts warrant it, while focusing congressional energy on issues that actually affect Americans’ lives: the economy, affordability, public safety and government competence.”

“Winning Congress would give Democrats an opportunity to demonstrate they can govern beyond simply being the opposition,” she added. “If they turn that opportunity into another impeachment crusade, Republicans will have a very clear argument to make to voters: Democrats were given power to govern, and chose instead to keep fighting the last election.” 

“Jon Stewart is saying what Democrats don’t want to hear: voters want results, not revenge,” Y. David Scharf, chair of government strategies and controversies at Morrison Cohen, told Fox News Digital. “If Democrats win Congress and spend the next two years trying to impeach Trump instead of lowering costs and fixing the economy, they’ll be writing the Republican playbook for 2028.”

He described impeachment as “political theater.”

Democratic strategist James Carville and his podcast co-host Al Hunt also warned against impeachment on Tuesday. Carville and Hunt argued that impeachment would be a waste of time and Democrats should devote their energy to investigating the president instead.

CARVILLE SAYS THE GOP IS BETTER THAN DEMOCRATS AT ONE KEY SKILL THE 2028 DEM NOMINEE WILL NEED

“I’ll tell you one thing that I think Democrats should steer clear of, and that’s impeachment,” Hunt said. “It’s not that Trump has not committed impeachable offenses, far worse than what he was accused of back in 2019 with Ukraine. I mean, he has. I mean, you could come up with a bill of particulars of, you know, a dozen at least. But you know something, James? It’s not going to happen, and it is a distraction.”

“It is a waste of energy,” Hunt added. “Investigate, investigate, investigate. Don’t go on a mission that isn’t going to succeed.”

Former Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel, who also served as White House chief of staff, urged fellow Democrats not to pursue impeachment during an interview on Sunday.

“You’re never going to get an impeachment,” he said. “Then, if you do that, you just basically prove all [of] Washington is what the American people think. It’s Disneyland on the Potomac. Deliver the change. Deliver a comprehensive ethics package that uses the investigations to then deliver change.”

The warnings came as Democrats held a polling advantage over Republicans heading into the final weeks before the midterm elections.

FORMER CHICAGO MAYOR RAHM EMANUEL DECLARES AMERICA IS READY FOR A JEWISH PRESIDENT

House race projections show Democrats winning 215 seats compared to 201 for the GOP, meaning Democrats would need to win at least three of the 19 remaining toss-up races to clinch a majority. Republicans would need to win at least 17 of those races.

House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, D-N.Y., has declined to say whether he would support impeachment proceedings against Trump, though he appeared to suggest over the summer that impeachment would not be a top priority.

Fox News’ Anders Hagstrom and Alexander Hall contributed to this report.

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FIRST ON FOX — New details of President Donald Trump’s multibillion-dollar deal with a defense tech giant reveal that the U.S. government will own 40% of the firm holding its new submarine shipyard without controlling it.

But first, Anduril must prove it can build Navy-certified components before competing for future production work, a U.S. official told Fox News Digital.

The government will use authorities under the Defense Production Act and the Pentagon’s Industrial Base Fund to acquire its stake in a newly formed company holding the Arsenal-2 shipyard in Baltimore, Maryland. The official described it as a “minority, non-control” investment designed to secure “tangible ownership and long-term value for American taxpayers.” 

Fox News Digital has asked the Department of War for the dollar value of the investment.

The Navy’s up-to-$2.9 billion agreement is not a guarantee of future submarine production work for Anduril. The money will flow through General Dynamics Electric Boat, the Navy’s lead Virginia-class submarine builder, and calls for Anduril to fabricate and qualify four test components. Anduril is separately committing $3.7 billion of its own capital to the project.

Anduril is not guaranteed future production work.

Instead, Electric Boat will set the specifications and oversee testing, qualification and Navy certification. If Anduril meets those milestones, it will have “the opportunity, but not the entitlement, to compete for future production work,” the official said.

“The ultimate proof of our commitment to ensuring the shipyard’s enduring success: American taxpayers will receive a 40 percent stake in the new shipyard,” Trump said Tuesday at Sparrows Point shipyard. “We get 40 percent.”

STARTUPS BRING INNOVATION TO DEFENSE INDUSTRIAL BASE

The size of the stake stands out even as the Trump administration has increasingly taken direct government interests in companies and projects it considers critical to national security. The administration has struck equity arrangements involving chipmaker Intel, rare earths producer MP Materials and other strategic industries.

The arrangement is part of a broader $6.6 billion effort to expand production of Virginia-class attack submarines as the U.S. struggles to keep pace with China’s vast shipbuilding capacities and the Navy falls behind on its production goal.

Anduril is committing $3.7 billion of its own capital to build the facility and manufacturing capacity, while the Navy could spend up to $2.9 billion purchasing what it produces.

The project is aimed at closing a persistent U.S. submarine production shortfall as China rapidly expands its naval and shipbuilding capacity. American shipyards are delivering roughly 1.3 Virginia-class attack submarines a year, short of the Navy’s goal of two, which it does not expect to reach until around 2032. Once fully operational, Arsenal-2 is expected to add about 9 million labor hours annually to the submarine industrial base, increasing Virginia-class production capacity by roughly 15%, an administration official told reporters on a call before Trump’s remarks.

LARGEST-EVER US STEEL PLANT IS COMING TO A KEY RED STATE AS TRUMP UNVEILS $15B INVESTMENT

An industry official on the call emphasized that Anduril would finance the new production capacity itself while the government paid for the resulting output.

“I wouldn’t say that the government’s paying us back. We feel the government [is] buying the results of what we’re able to produce,” the industry official said.

The 40% government stake was not disclosed on the call, which included questions from reporters about how the project would be financed.

The submarine crunch is part of a broader shipbuilding gap with China, whose vast commercial maritime industry also supports its rapidly expanding navy. China now accounts for more than half of global commercial shipbuilding output, while the U.S. accounts for only a fraction of 1%, giving Beijing an enormous industrial base that can also support military ship construction.

Anduril plans to begin with critical components including torpedo tubes, which a senior administration official described as a current “gating component” slowing Virginia-class production. The company eventually plans to manufacture larger modules and sections of submarines at Arsenal-2.

The more than 2 million-square-foot facility is expected to create 3,100 direct jobs and roughly 11,000 indirect jobs nationwide, with operations slated to begin around 2030.

The U.S, District Court for the Southern District of New York charged former Venezuelan leader Nicolás Maduro and his wife Cilia Flores with conspiracy to commit torture to Americans and others to stay in power, according to a superseding indictment filed Thursday.

Maduro’s government, according to the indictment, “presided over a system of repression that relied on violence against political opposition, arbitrary detention, and the torture of detainees, including United States citizens.”

The torture included “electric shock, asphyxiation, rape, forced nudity, prolonged isolation, starvation, punishment cells, and psychological torture, such as threats to harm and kill victims’ families, including children,” the indictment read.

The charge carries a maximum of life imprisonment if any of the alleged torture resulted in death, and a maximum penalty of 20 years in prison if not.

FAMILIES SUE MADURO IN US, ACCUSE EX-PRESIDENT OF DIRECTING POLICE UNIT TIED TO EXTRAJUDICIAL KILLINGS

In one incident, the indictment alleges that a U.S. detainee in Venezuela was beaten for days and doused with a noxious liquid that made him vomit, which Venezuelan officers then allegedly made him eat.

WAR CRIMES COURT TURNS ‘BLIND EYE’ TO TOP WORLD THREATS WHILE TARGETING AMERICANS, TRUMP ADMIN ACCUSES

The detainee, who was allegedly accused of plotting to kill Maduro, was also subjected to electric shock torture to his torso and genitals and injected with a substance that induced seizures.

“On one occasion, CC-3 personally observed Victim-7 being electrocuted; laughed at and taunted Victim-7 during the electric shock; and directed other DGCIM officers in connection with the electric shock,” the indictment read.

MADURO’S ALLEGED ‘BAG MAN’ ALEX SAAB ARRESTED LESS THAN 3 YEARS AFTER BIDEN PARDON: REPORT

After spending eight-and-a-half months at Boleíta Norte prison in Venezuela, the detainee was released and returned to the U.S. in October 2022, according to the indictment.

The indictment alleges Maduro and Flores “inflicted severe physical and mental pain and suffering to repress and punish political opposition, silence dissent and perceived dissent, preserve and protect the power and authority of the members of the conspiracy, and intimidate, harass, and neutralize their opponents, including through kidnappings.”

The pair, who face numerous other charges, were arrested in Venezuela in January during Operation Absolute Resolve. Maduro was originally charged with narco-terrorism conspiracy, cocaine importation conspiracy, possession of machine guns and destructive devices, and conspiracy to possess machine guns and destructive devices in a 2011 indictment that President Donald Trump’s Department of Justice unsealed in 2020.

Flores was then charged in a superseding indictment in January with cocaine importation conspiracy, possession of machine guns and destructive devices, and conspiracy to possess machine guns and destructive devices. They have pleaded not guilty and a trial is scheduled for June 2027. 

EXCLUSIVE: FBI EXTRADITIONS SOAR AS PATEL RAMPS UP FOREIGN OUTREACH, VOWS ‘NO SANCTUARY’

Flores appeared in court Thursday for a bond hearing on her motion for release from jail. Her lawyers were requesting home confinement with GPS tracking, citing a heart condition and arguing she does not pose a danger to the community. U.S. District Judge Alvin Hellerstein denied the request.

The U.S. government opposes her release, arguing she poses a flight risk and danger to the public.

Flores’ attorneys say she denies the allegations against her, and both she and Maduro have filed motions to dismiss on diplomatic immunity grounds.

Fox News’ Maria Paronich and Patrick Ward contributed to this report.

New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani has come under fire for his comments on the Oct. 7, 2023, attack on Israel, but two leading voices in New York politics have so far remained quiet.

Mamdani’s post on Wednesday briefly acknowledged Hamas’ blitz on Israel that left more than 1,100 Israelis dead and more than 250 others captured and held hostage by the terrorist organization. But the bulk of his statement spent time on criticizing Israel for its actions in Gaza in the three years since.

“The suffering did not begin nor end that day. It instead continued through the Israeli government’s devastating, ongoing genocide in Gaza, in which it has killed more than 74,000 Palestinians — including more than 21,000 children,” Mamdani said on X. “Even since the so-called ceasefire, more than 1,400 Palestinians have been killed.”

MAMDANI DOUBLES DOWN ON ANTI-ISRAEL OCT 7 STATEMENT AFTER BACKLASH

“That suffering has intensified with every Israeli bomb dropped on ambulances waiting outside hospitals, every drone strike targeting a residential building or journalist, and every shipment of food aid turned away at a border crossing,” he continued. “Many New Yorkers are reckoning with this unbearable grief, and we mourn alongside them — all while knowing that our tax dollars fund these war crimes.”

Mamdani notably did not mention the Jewish community in New York City, which is home to nearly 1 million Jews, according to a 2023 study from the UJA-Federation of New York.

And while at least one New York Democrat, Rep. Dan Goldman, laid into Mamdani for his comments, neither Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer nor House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, the two most powerful Democrats in Congress, has reacted.

MAMDANI’S $30M PLAN TO FIGHT ANTISEMITISM INCLUDES INCREASED FUNDING FOR ANTI-ISRAEL GROUP

“This is a reprehensible statement on the anniversary of the horrific terrorist attack by a Palestinian terrorist organization against innocent Israelis,” Goldman said on X. “In the guise of ‘grieving’ with those mourning that day, Mayor Mamdani asserts as fact hotly disputed allegations that he knows full well will offend and further upset those same people he pretends to grieve with.”

Neither Schumer nor Jeffries responded to requests for comment on Mamdani’s remarks. They put out their own statements on the Oct. 7 attack on Wednesday.

Schumer, who is Jewish, noted that the attack was the “single deadliest day in Jewish history since the Holocaust.” His support of Israel has become a wedge issue for some Senate Democrats, who have slowly pushed back against funding arms for Israel following three years of conflict in Gaza.

DEM SENATOR WHO DEMANDED SAUDI ACCOUNTABILITY OVER KHASHOGGI MEETS WITH CROWN PRINCE, PUSHES PALESTINIAN STATE

“Today, we reaffirm our commitment to the security of the Israeli people, to the aid and wellbeing of the Palestinian people and the recovery of the devastation in Gaza that the ensuing conflict brought, and to doubling down on efforts for a lasting peace resulting in two states where Israelis and Palestinians can live side by side in equal measures of peace, security, dignity, and mutual recognition,” Schumer said.

Jeffries was more aligned with Schumer’s left flank in his statement, while recognizing that “we are reminded of the painful reality that the Jewish people are in a constant struggle for survival, as has been the case for thousands of years.”

“Throughout the past three years, considerable suffering has plagued the Middle East. The horrific death of Palestinian civilians, destruction of civil society and devastation in Gaza is reprehensible and can never be allowed to happen again,” Jeffries said.

“In order to end the vicious cycle of bloodshed, for the good of the Israeli and Palestinian people, American policy in the region must change dramatically,” he continued. “We must commit to the creation of an independent Palestinian state to provide dignity, respect and self-determination for the Palestinian people.”

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