Dr. Oz vows to stop ‘predators’ at the core of California medical fraud

California is ground zero for massive health care fraud, according to Dr. Mehmet Oz, who vows to “drive these predators out of the system.”

“Stealing from people at the most vulnerable moment of their lives isn’t just fraud — it can cost them their future,” the head of the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid, told The Post Thursday.

The declaration from the former TV doctor comes just days after he claimed to have uncovered a hot spot in the Los Angeles neighborhood of Van Nuys, where he said dozens of hospice care facilities are operating within just a four-block radius.

“In this four-block area in Los Angeles, there are 42 hospices,” Oz said in a video posted to social media Tuesday, “so, either there are a lot of people dying here, or you got a fraudulent activity that is so good everyone wants to get in on it.”

A California Post reporter visited five hospice care facilities in the area, speaking with employees at three of them.

The three offices did not have sick patients in beds — the employees said that was because their facilities do not offer inpatient care.

Instead, they said that their nurses travel to patients’ homes.

The employees accused Oz of unfairly profiling a predominantly Armenian neighborhood.

Governor Newsom has also taken up issue with Oz’s tactics. “My office is filing a civil rights complaint seeking an investigation into Dr. Oz’s baseless and racist allegations against Armenian Americans in California,” he posted on X Thursday.

“Such racially charged and false public statements by anyone involved in administering these critical federal healthcare programs seriously risks chilling participation in those programs by individuals targeted by the statements,” read an official letter sent out by Newsom.

In the social media video, Oz visited a location in Van Nuys that a spokesperson for his office claimed was the site of a now-closed hospice facility, where the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services had previously suspended $500,000 in Medicare payments after identifying credible allegations of fraud.

“CMS routinely monitors for abnormal billing patterns, beneficiary complaints, and other indicators of potential fraud. When issues arise, CMS uses a range of tools, including payment suspensions, revocations of billing privileges, and referrals to law enforcement partners,” a spokesperson for CMS told The Post.

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CMS has “revitalized its hospice program integrity strategy” in recent years, including making unannounced site visits to Medicare-enrolled hospices, prohibiting the transfer of the provider agreement and Medicare billing privileges of a newly enrolling hospice for 36 months, and enhancing enrollment screenings, according to the spokesperson.

The Post asked Oz’s office for specific examples of fraud in the area that is currently being investigated but was told that “CMS does not comment on any ongoing or potential investigations.”

“When bad actors trick patients into fraudulent hospice care, they don’t just drain taxpayer dollars; they strip people of the medical care that could have helped them live longer,” Oz said.

“That’s unconscionable, and we are going to drive these predators out of the system.”