NY AG hopeful blasts Letitia James as Medicaid fraud recoveries collapse: 'She's not doing the job'

By Fox News · Fox News

Republican New York attorney general candidate Saritha Komatireddy is making Medicaid fraud a centerpiece of her campaign, charging that prosecutions have sharply declined under Attorney General Letitia James. Cracking down on Medicaid fraud has become a flashpoint issue in the country after investigators uncovered billions of dollars in alleged fraud tied to public assistance programs in Minnesota. The scandal pushed the Trump administration to make cracking down on fraud a higher priority, with Vice President JD Vance leading a federal effort. Now, Republican candidates in races across the country, including New York's attorney general contest, are calling for states to do more to prosecute Medicaid fraud and recover taxpayer money. In an interview with Fox News Digital, Komatireddy accused James of failing to aggressively pursue Medicaid fraud, saying taxpayers could be losing out on hundreds of millions of dollars in recoveries. "They're totally failing to prosecute Medicaid fraud , and you can look at that based solely on the record of Letitia James and her Democratic predecessors," Komatireddy said. "This is not a partisan issue." NEW YORK REPUBLICANS CALL FOR INDEPENDENT FRAUD INVESTIGATION FOLLOWING MINNESOTA REVELATIONS Komatireddy's said Medicaid fraud recoveries have plummeted under James, falling from $168 million in 2019, her first year in office, to just $31 million in 2024, according to data from New York Attorney General's annual reports. Before James took office, New York attorneys general routinely posted some of the nation's largest Medicaid fraud recoveries. Under Eliot Spitzer, the Medicaid Fraud Control Unit recovered $243.6 million in 2006. Andrew Cuomo's office then recovered $113.8 million in 2007, $263.5 million in 2008 and more than $283 million in 2009, totaling more than $660 million during his first three years as attorney general. And Cuomo's successor, Eric Schneiderman, recovered more than $335 million in 2012 — the second-highest a…