The World and Everything In It 3.5.26 Medicaid fraud, the landmark social-media trial, and teaching children about sexuality
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Mar 5, 2026 Jenny Ruff, a reporter on parental responsibility in sex education; Matthew Bergman, attorney suing social platforms over alleged addictive design; Harrison Waters, reporter on HHS Medicaid data release and fraud detection. They discuss Medicaid data release and crowdsourced fraud detection. They cover a landmark trial alleging platforms engineered youth addiction. They debate who should teach children about sexuality.
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Crowdsourcing Medicaid Fraud With Public Data
- HHS published seven years of Medicaid provider data to crowdsource fraud detection.
- The dataset has 200+ million rows covering 2018–2024 and excludes patient info, letting citizens spot impossible billing patterns like 24+ hour claims.
Verify Red Flags Before Reporting Fraud
- Validate suspicious patterns before accusing providers because not all overspending is fraud.
- Use subject-matter expertise to confirm red flags since false positives risk reputational harm and only ~10% recovery is typical.
AI Makes Fraudsters More Adaptive
- Fraud schemes evolve as generative AI improves, making criminals more sophisticated.
- Investigators must proactively adapt tools and methods because perpetrators adjust quickly when enforcement changes.