288 Shell Companies. Seven Empty Columbus Buildings. $250 Million in Ohio Medicaid Billings.
On July 1, 2024, the administration of Ohio Governor Mike DeWine (R-OH) made GPS-stamped Electronic Visit Verification (EVV) — the only objective evidence that a paid Medicaid home-health caregiver actually showed up at a patient’s home — optional rather than required. Ohio kept paying claims that lacked it. Twenty-three months later, on May 11, 2026, Daily Wire investigator Luke Rosiak documented the result: 288 home-health companies registered to seven mostly empty office buildings in Columbus had billed Medicaid $250 million between 2018 and 2024.
The Ohio Auditor of State, Keith Faber (R-OH), had already flagged the underlying mechanism in a 2024 audit: 44% of personal-services claims had no electronic verification at all; $1.1 billion in 2022 alone was paid without EVV; extrapolating the 15.6% error rate across all home-health spending produces a potential $4.4 billion exposure. AG Dave Yost (R-OH)testified in March 2026 that “until about a year ago [GPS] was required, now it’s optional.”
The federal response was immediate. House Oversight Chairman James Comer (R-KY) authorized a six-month task force under Rep. Brandon Gill (R-TX). CMS imposed a nationwide six-month moratorium on new hospice and home-health Medicare enrollments. VP JD Vance (R-OH) — whose Anti-Fraud Task Force chairs the federal pressure campaign — made the Ohio investigation personal. Republican gubernatorial nominee Vivek Ramaswamy (R) pledged prosecutions. Within days, DeWine reversed his own July 2024 EVV-optional rule. No individual Ohio defendants have been charged.
- 288Home-health companies registered to 7 mostly empty Columbus office buildings — Daily Wire investigation
- $250MTotal Medicaid billed by those 288 shell companies between 2018 and 2024
- $66MSingle Columbus address (93 companies registered, zero activity) billed from an empty office
- 44%Ohio Medicaid personal-services claims with NO electronic visit verification — Faber 2024 audit
- $1.1BTotal Ohio Medicaid claims paid without EVV in 2022 alone — Faber audit
- $4.4BFaber's extrapolated upper-bound exposure if 15.6% error rate holds across all home-health spending
- July 2024DeWine administration's Ohio Dept. of Medicaid made GPS-stamped EVV OPTIONAL — reversed May 2026 only after the Daily Wire exposé
- $46.4BNational annual home-healthcare Medicaid spend (2024), up from ~$24B in 2019 — Vance Task Force's broader target
Governor: Mike DeWine (R) — first elected 2018, re-elected 2022. Presided over the July 1, 2024 policy that made GPS/EVV optional. Now reversing under federal pressure.
Attorney General: Dave Yost (R) — outgoing AG. Publicly pushed back against DeWine’s verification rollback in March 2026 legislative testimony. Oversees Ohio’s Medicaid Fraud Control Unit (161 convictions since 2019).
Auditor of State: Keith Faber (R) — 2024 audit author. Quantified the $1.1B unverified-claims figure and the $4.4B extrapolated exposure.
Ohio Medicaid Director: Maureen Corcoran — longtime director. ODM spokeswoman Stephanie O’Grady quoted by Daily Wire.
Republican gubernatorial nominee: Vivek Ramaswamy (R) — campaigning on prosecutions.
Ohio statehouse: Rep. Josh Williams (R-Toledo) pushing verification legislation.
The mechanism is straightforward and bureaucratic. Electronic Visit Verification (EVV) is a federally mandated digital-attestation system for Medicaid home-health visits — a smartphone or device-based check-in that records the GPS coordinates of where the caregiver actually was when they punched in. It is the only objective evidence that the paid visit happened. Ohio paid $146 million to vendor Sandata to build the EVV infrastructure.
On July 1, 2024, the Ohio Department of Medicaid under Governor DeWine made the GPS-stamped requirement optional. Per Faber’s audit, the immediate consequences:
44% of personal-services claims had NO electronic verification at all.
53% of records with EVV had GPS coordinates present.
34% of EVV entries had been MANUALLY ADJUSTED — defeating the anti-fraud purpose.
10% of aides were exempt from EVV requirements outright.
$1.1B in unverified claims paid in 2022 alone — out of $1.8B total to 2,479 home-health companies.
$4.4B potential exposure if the 15.6% error rate extrapolates across the full program.
“Until about a year ago [GPS] was required, now it's optional.”
Ohio AG Dave Yost (R-OH) · legislative testimony · March 2026
“If you could and you did literally extrapolate, a 15.6% error rate could be as much as $4,400,000,000.”
Ohio Auditor of State Keith Faber (R-OH) · 2024 Medicaid audit
On May 5, 2026, Daily Wire investigator Luke Rosiak documented the first concrete consequence: 288 Medicaid home-health companies registered to seven mostly empty Columbus office buildings, having collectively billed the Ohio Medicaid program $250 million between 2018 and 2024. One single address housed 93 companies that had billed $66 million from an empty office.
38% of Ohio’s home-health spending flows to Franklin County (Columbus).
10% of the state’s home-health companies operate out of the seven buildings Rosiak identified.
Buildings were “mostly empty” on multiple visits; tenants either declined to comment or could not be located on site.
No DOJ indictment or ODM enforcement action has been filed against any of the 288 companies as of publication.
The federal escalation moved at the speed the news cycle generally does not.
May 5, 2026 — Daily Wire publishes the 288-companies story.
May 11, 2026 — Daily Wire follows with the Ohio “safeguards exist but loophole” piece.
May 13, 2026 — CMS imposes a six-month nationwide enrollment moratorium on new hospice and home-health Medicare providers; VP Vance Anti-Fraud Task Force defers $1.3B in California Medicaid payments (the parallel California hospice crackdown).
May 14, 2026 — RCI publishes the Walter Curt “Unbridled Spending” piece on federal Medicaid expansion Congress never voted on at the $46.4B-per-year scale.
Mid-May 2026 — House Oversight Chair Comer (R-KY) authorizes a 6-month task force on Ohio Medicaid fraud under Rep. Brandon Gill (R-TX); document-request letter sent to Ohio Department of Medicaid.
Same week — DeWine administration reverses the July 2024 EVV-optional policy.
“These shocking allegations, if true, show why the Fraud Task Force's work is so important. … This doesn't work unless we take fraud seriously.”
Vice President JD Vance (R-OH) · May 2026
“I refuse to tolerate this kind of waste, fraud, and abuse in Medicaid. We'll prosecute aggressively and put the money back in the pockets of law-abiding Ohioans.”
Vivek Ramaswamy (R) · Republican nominee for Ohio Governor · May 2026
“Hundreds of shell companies operating out of empty office buildings … we believe the full scope of this scandal reaches into the billions.”
Rep. Brandon Gill (R-TX) · House Oversight task force chair · May 2026
Ohio is an interesting variant on the broader Medicaid-fraud story because every named official is a Republican. The governor who turned off the verification rule, the auditor who measured the consequence, the attorney general who publicly objected, the gubernatorial nominee who is campaigning to fix it, the VP whose task force is forcing the federal action — all R. Ohio is not a story of partisan blame. It is a story of how fast a state can pile up shell-company Medicaid exposure when the GPS verification is turned off, and how fast that exposure becomes a national political problem when an investigative reporter writes it down.
The federal Vance Task Force template — payment suspension, enrollment moratorium, document-request letter, public-pressure cycle — was built for California hospice fraud. Ohio is the second jurisdiction to feel it. The third is whichever state the next investigative reporter goes to next.
I refuse to tolerate this kind of waste, fraud, and abuse in Medicaid. We'll prosecute aggressively and put the money back in the pockets of law-abiding Ohioans.
Ohio Governor Mike DeWine (R) turned off the GPS verification on July 1, 2024. Ohio Medicaid paid $250 million to 288 shell companies in seven mostly empty Columbus buildings. Ohio Auditor Keith Faber (R) measured a potential $4.4 billion in exposure. AG Dave Yost (R) said the quiet part on the legislative record. VP JD Vance (R-OH) made it personal. The CMS moratorium followed in days. DeWine reversed his own policy under federal pressure. No individual defendants have been charged. When charges come, this page updates.