JD Vance Sent Federal Investigators to Ohio After Jaw-Dropping Discovery About Origins of Medicaid Ghost Companies

Minnesota's Medicaid fraud scandal cost taxpayers over a billion dollars before anyone shut it down.

Now Ohio auditors have found the exact same playbook running in Columbus – and the numbers are even bigger.

State Auditor Keith Faber just told Ohioans this could top $4 billion in stolen money.

Seven Buildings, 288 Fake Companies, $250 Million Already Gone

The Daily Wire sent reporter Luke Rosiak into a cluster of office complexes along East Dublin Granville Road in Columbus and found something that should make every Ohio taxpayer furious.

Seven buildings owned by Cordoba Real Estate – largely vacant, with abandoned offices and feral cats roaming the parking lots – housed 288 businesses all registered as Medicaid home health providers.

Together those 288 companies billed taxpayers more than $250 million between 2018 and 2024.

Rosiak went building to building. Signs said employees were at lunch. Thick stacks of mail that hadn't been touched in months sat outside the doors.

One company – JLL Home Healthcare LLC – had no doorknob on its front door and a sign reading "Steaming To Assist."

Another company down the hall had received a letter from the Ohio Attorney General's Bureau of Criminal Investigation. It had been sitting by the door, unopened, for five months.

The Numbers That Made Faber Drop His Pen

That quarter billion was just the fraud hiding in plain sight.

State Auditor Keith Faber went wider.

He told the Ohio Senate Medicaid Committee that the home health program totals $1.6 billion statewide – and 38% of it flows to Franklin County alone. Franklin County holds roughly 11.5% of Ohio's population. For comparison, Cuyahoga County has similar demographics and draws 16%.

Then it gets tighter. Faber found that 40% of Franklin County's share – over $200 million – concentrates in just two zip codes, 43231 and 43229, four miles apart on Columbus's north side.

All of this in a city where only 6,273 people age 75 or older are enrolled in Medicaid.

Faber's statewide testing found a 15.6% error rate in sampled claims, which he said could mean up to $4 billion in improper payments across the program.

The math doesn't work. It was never supposed to.

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Ohio Kept Writing Checks While the Buildings Sat Empty

The Ohio Department of Medicaid responded to the Daily Wire investigation by insisting it "has been actively investigating these matters" and touting an "extensive set of safeguards."

But the payments kept flowing – for years – under Gov. Mike DeWine's watch.

Franklin County home health providers have been racking up fraud findings since at least 2014. The Ohio Auditor's own records show repeated examinations catching Franklin County companies billing for unqualified staff, billing before physician authorization, and billing for services with zero supporting documentation.

Great Nursing Care, Inc. was overpaid $4.9 million. Shifo Healthcare Services billed for aides with no first aid certification – auditors tested six, found none certified, tested twelve more, found none. The state recovered $2.1 million and kept the program running.

Ohio Medicaid Director Scott Partika told the state Senate in March that his agency had "60 different project work streams" under investigation and welcomed the "heightened attention to fraud, waste and abuse."

Sixty work streams. Meanwhile 288 companies in seven buildings billed a quarter billion dollars.

JD Vance Moved When Ohio Wouldn't

When the Daily Wire published its findings, Vice President JD Vance directed the federal Fraud Task Force to act the same day. "These shocking allegations, if true, show why the Fraud Task Force's work is so important," Vance said. "I'm directing the task force to look into it and take immediate action to prosecute any fraudsters involved and stop all further payments as appropriate."

DeWine had already written CMS Administrator Mehmet Oz a letter on May 1 – prompted by Oz's demand that all 50 governors submit provider revalidation plans – committing to review "high-risk providers." That letter came before the Daily Wire investigation published. It produced no visible results.

Ohio Congressman Warren Davidson said it plainly: "Minneapolis was just the tip of the iceberg."

He's right – and Ohio Republicans who administered this program while the fraud metastasized need to answer for it alongside the fraudsters themselves.

The Guardrails Democrats Designed Out of the System

This isn't bad luck. It's the result of a system built without accountability by design.

Obama-era Medicaid expansion created low-barrier enrollment rules to maximize provider participation. States took the money and skipped the oversight. Minnesota's housing stabilization program was projected to cost $2.6 million a year and paid out $104 million in 2024 alone before federal investigators moved in.

Ohio followed the same arc. The auditor's report flagged weak electronic visit verification – the basic tool that confirms a caregiver actually showed up – as a critical gap. Without it, billing claims can't be checked against reality.

Your federal tax dollars flow to Ohio, Ohio routes them to Medicaid, and Medicaid cuts checks to companies with no doorknobs and five-month-old unopened mail.

The Trump administration's DOGE data release is what finally surfaced the billing patterns. That data was never supposed to be public. Now 288 companies in seven empty buildings have to explain $250 million – and Ohio families deserve every dollar back.

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Sources:

• Luke Rosiak, "Inside Ohio's Home Health Empire: 7 Buildings, 288 Medicaid Companies, $250 Million," The Daily Wire, May 2026.
• "Daily Wire Investigation Ignites Imminent Crackdown On Medicaid Fraud," The Daily Wire, May 2026.
• "JD Vance Vows Crackdown After Daily Wire's Ohio Medicaid Investigation," The Daily Wire, May 2026.
• T.A. DeFeo, "Ohio Officials Acknowledge Concerns About Medicaid Fraud Allegations," Ohio News, May 11, 2026.
• Rep. Warren Davidson, Press Release, davidson.house.gov, May 7, 2026.
• Ohio Auditor of State, Medicaid examination records, ohioauditor.gov.