CMS Strengthens Program Integrity with New Immigration Status Checks

CMS Strengthens Program Integrity with New Immigration Status Checks
  • calendar_today August 13, 2025
  • News

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Federal regulators announced a nationwide effort Tuesday to crack down on illegal immigrants enrolled in Medicaid and the Children’s Health Insurance Program, a public health insurance program for low-income children and adults.

CMS officials told reporters on a call that they are starting a system that will produce monthly reports for every state that will allow the agency to easily spot enrollees who are potentially in the country illegally. The reports will give states a list of Medicaid or CHIP enrollees whose immigration or citizenship status cannot be verified through federal data sources. The Trump administration plans to coordinate with the Social Security Administration and the Homeland Security’s Systematic Alien Verification for Entitlements (SAVE) program.

“We are tightening oversight of enrollment to protect taxpayer dollars and ensure that these critical programs serve only those who are eligible under the law,” Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. said in a statement.

CMS Administrator Dr. Mehmet Oz added that the move will help ensure taxpayer-funded safety-net health programs like Medicaid and CHIP are “available to those most in need.”

“Every dollar misspent is a dollar stolen from an eligible, vulnerable individual in need of Medicaid and CHIP,” Oz said in the statement. “This action reflects our steadfast commitment to program integrity and to protecting taxpayer dollars by ensuring that benefits are provided only to those who are eligible under the law.”

The initiative is the latest effort from the Trump administration to ensure that only eligible citizens receive public benefits. The program reporting comes as Trump is ramping up a second-term agenda that is focused on tighter immigration enforcement and an end to illegal immigration.

Trump issued an executive order at the start of his second term that ordered all federal agencies to review the benefits they provide and to ensure that non-citizens are not receiving benefits in violation of a 1996 welfare reform law. The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services was the first to respond, when in February it told state agencies that they needed to verify that Medicaid enrollees are eligible for the program.

Later in February, the Trump administration’s Department of Health and Human Services expanded the list of public benefits subject to new verification requirements. HHS officials redefined the 1996 law’s definition of public benefits, which are subject to federal immigration law. The list of government programs the agency considered “public benefits” increased from 31 to 44.

The CMS move comes amid new legal fights over immigrant access to safety-net programs. In a court ruling last month, a federal judge said the Trump administration must halt its efforts to share enrollee data with immigration authorities.

The administration was reportedly providing information to Immigration and Customs Enforcement to help with deportation efforts, but was blocked by the ruling, which said the move went beyond the department’s authority.

States are also now subject to new verification requirements in Republican spending legislation. The spending package, approved last month, requires states to confirm Medicaid enrollees’ eligibility at least twice per year. Previously, there was no specific minimum requirement on how often states were to check.

A coalition of 20+ Democratic attorneys general, led by New York’s Letitia James, is suing over the new verification requirement. The attorneys general say requiring states to verify immigration status in federally funded programs risks millions of residents losing access to essential services.

“Our states have long built health, education, and family support systems that serve anyone who is in need,” James said in a statement. “These programs work because they are open, accessible, and grounded in compassion. Now, the federal government is pulling that foundation out from under us overnight, jeopardizing everything from cancer screenings to early childhood education, primary care, and so much more.”

The lawsuit is part of a growing trend of litigation between Republican Washington and Democratic-led states on issues related to immigration. It is likely that the CMS effort will face new legal challenges as well.

While CMS has sent the first reports, other agencies like HHS still have more to do on the Trump administration’s directive to end illegal immigrants’ access to public benefits.