The Trump Administration is piloting a federal program that uses artificial intelligence to help decide what care to approve or deny.
Page H15From§Eachthe morning edition — 26 October 2026
Justice Department counts $2 billion in healthcare fraud, charges zero algorithms deciding seniors' care
As it ran on the front
In September, a nonprofit called Americans for Responsible Innovation opened a fifty-state campaign for rules on artificial intelligence, aimed at what it called threats to workers, kids, and families. Three weeks later, on October 1, the Hill carried the counter-argument in an op-ed: the federal government had opened a new door to obesity treatment, the GLP-1 Bridge program, and six hundred thousand Medicare beneficiaries had walked through it since July 1; keep the door open, the piece argued.
On October 20, ABC News reported that Medicare's open enrollment period had begun the week before, with some changes to the plan. Two days after that, on October 22, federal prosecutors in California charged fifteen people in cases alleging more than two billion dollars in losses, and the state attorney general separately charged 103 providers with defrauding Medi-Cal of $4.5 million. The count for the month, so far: two billion dollars in alleged losses, 118 people charged, zero of them an algorithm.…
…(cont) Because by October 26, the same month, the New York Post reported that a federal pilot now lets an artificial intelligence agent help decide whether a senior's care gets approved or denied, running in several states. No count sits next to that program. The Hill's own open-enrollment list, filed the same day, puts the number on one line: deductibles are going up in 2027. On the next line, same list: GLP-1 drug prices are changing too, in a direction the piece does not specify. What's specified is the deductible. What's not is which way the obesity-drug prices that drew those six hundred thousand people in are about to move.
Run the two totals side by side. The fraud column: two billion dollars, 118 names, a prosecutor's signature on every charge. The denial column: an unnamed number of seniors, an algorithm with no name on the charging document because there is no charging document, and a deductible that is confirmed higher. One column gets a press conference. The other gets open enrollment. Hon, that's not an accusation. That's just what's in the two columns.
“They parade fifteen people and a Medi-Cal list of 103 providers for two billion dollars and call it accountability, same month a computer says no to grandma's claim with no signature on the denial. You can't arrest a server. That's the trick: the humans they're willing to charge aren't the ones deciding whether your hip gets fixed anymore.”
“The fraud sweep proves the system works, fifteen bad actors and a $4.5 million Medi-Cal case, that's taxpayer money recovered. The AI pilot is just modernization, efficiency, getting families faster answers. Did I just say a faster "no" is the win? That doesn't sound like me.”
The receipts
From GLP-1 drug prices to higher deductibles, several Medicare changes could affect seniors' wallets in 2027.
The DOJ disbanded its crypto enforcement team in April 2025 and ordered inconsistent investigations closed - while the president's family runs a crypto business CNBC, 8 April 2025 (Blanche memo)
Over 100 arrested in California after $2 billion state-federal healthcare fraud crackdownsFederal and California officials announced separate healthcare fraud crackdowns on Thursday, with federal prosecutors charging 15 people in cases alleging more than $2 billion in losses and state Attorney General Rob Bonta (D) announcing charges and arrests against 103 providers accused of defrauding Medi-Cal, the state’s version of…
· AI advocacy group launches state-level policy push from the morgue, 10 Sep 2026
· What to know about changes to Medicare as open enrollment begins from the morgue, 20 Oct 2026
· A new Medicare program opened the door to obesity treatment — keep it open from the morgue, 1 Oct 2026
This page is a back-issue: the story as it ran, receipts as they were. The current edition is at the front. The byline is a pen name for a column drafted by a machine and checked by the editor: how this is made.