Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton announced Tuesday that his office has launched sweeping investigations into dozens of Medicaid providers across the state, signaling an intensified effort to crack down on healthcare fraud and misuse of public funds.
According to the Office of the Attorney General, the investigations are being led by its Healthcare Program Enforcement Division and rely heavily on newly available claims data from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. The data was made public through initiatives tied to the Department of Government Efficiency, which has been working to expose potential fraud within federal healthcare programs.
The probes target a wide range of providers, including home health agencies, occupational therapy services, and organizations linked to questionable billing practices involving COVID-19 treatments. Officials indicated that investigators are combining federal datasets with internal state records and legal tools such as Civil Investigative Demands to build cases that could lead to litigation.
The investigations follow earlier actions this year when DOGE released Medicaid claims data on the platform X to encourage transparency and identify irregularities. State officials say that data release has significantly expanded their ability to detect patterns of abuse.
Paxton’s office has emphasized that recovering taxpayer dollars remains a central priority. Since 2020, the attorney general’s office reports recovering more than $1 billion tied to Medicaid fraud enforcement, reflecting an ongoing focus on accountability within publicly funded healthcare systems.
The Healthcare Program Enforcement Division has already been active in several high-profile cases. Recent actions include lawsuits against Children’s Health and physicians in North Texas over treatments involving transgender-related medications for minors. Additional litigation has targeted dental providers accused of offering gift cards as incentives and performing unnecessary procedures to increase Medicaid billing.
Beyond providers, enforcement efforts have also extended to major pharmaceutical companies. The state has pursued legal action against Sanofi, Eli Lilly, and Bristol-Myers Squibb over allegations ranging from illegal kickbacks to failing to disclose limitations of certain medications, including the blood thinner Plavix.
In another recent case, the state secured a $41.5 million settlement from Pfizer and Tris Pharma related to claims involving adulterated ADHD medications provided to children on Medicaid.
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