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by WILL FOLKS
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South Carolina eighth circuit solicitor David Stumbo – who is running to become the Palmetto State’s next attorney general – says he would take aim at Medicaid fraud in the event he is elected.
According to Stumbo, Medicaid fraud costs South Carolina taxpayers a minimum of $147 million annually – with more than 9,300 recipients having been “flagged for assets above the legal limit.” Of those, Stumbo claimed more than 1,000 had “six-figure bank accounts, and some with more than $1 million.”
“Millionaires are on Medicaid in South Carolina,” Stumbo said during a press conference at the S.C. State House. “And as attorney general, I’m going to stop it.”
Stumbo’s calculations may be on the conservative side. According to the latest data from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), an estimated 6.12% of Medicaid payments are fraudulent. If we apply that figure to the estimated $10.1 billion in Medicaid funding expended in the Palmetto State, the true fraud total could be as high as $620 million.
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South Carolina attorney general candidate @VoteStumbo takes aim at #Medicaid fraud in the Palmetto State… pic.twitter.com/X3sz4oxlys
— FITSNews (@fitsnews) May 28, 2026
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Whatever the amount, Stumbo said it is depriving rightful recipients of the funding to which they are entitled.
“South Carolina families are working two jobs to afford groceries and gas — while their tax dollars are paying for millionaires on Medicaid,” Stumbo said. “And more than 25,000 vulnerable South Carolinians are stuck on waitlists, some for years. That is wrong. And it ends when I’m attorney general.”
Stumbo was joined at his press conference by state senator Billy Garrett, sponsor of S. 915. Garrett’s legislation – which unanimously passed the S.C. Senate but died in the S.C. House of Representatives – would have dramatically expanded the ability of future attorneys general to investigate and prosecute Medicaid fraud.
“Senator Garrett’s bill passed the Senate forty-five to nothing,” Stumbo said. “Republicans, Democrats — every senator agreed. It gives the attorney general the power to subpoena fraud records, prosecute fraud with real penalties, and recover taxpayer money,” Stumbo said. “Pass it. Send it to the governor. Then send me to enforce it.”d have dramatically expanded the authority of future attorneys general to investigate and prosecute.”
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Stumbo also praised current attorney general Alan Wilson for his work on this issue, vowing to continue his efforts via the implementation of “a five-point plan to root out Medicaid fraud and protect both South Carolina taxpayers and the vulnerable citizens the program was built to serve.”
Stumbo’s plan consists of…
- A Medicaid Fraud Strike Force in the attorney general’s office, dedicated to prosecution and investigation
- Aggressive criminal prosecution of recipients gaming the system, providers billing for services never delivered, and shell-company middlemen exploiting the program
- A fight for full annual asset verification of every ABD Medicaid recipient — every year, no more 25% spot checks
- Cross-state fraud detection — working with other states to catch the scammers who hop state lines
- A public annual report on Medicaid fraud investigations, prosecutions, and taxpayer dollars recovered
“This is happening in state after state,” Stumbo said. “The same fraudsters. The same shell games. The same middlemen treating a program meant for sick children, the elderly, and the disabled like a personal ATM. South Carolina will not be next. Not on my watch.”
Stumbo is one of three candidates vying for the Republican nomination for attorney general. The others are state senator Stephen Goldfinch and first circuit solicitor David Pascoe. Recent polling shows broad swaths of the state’s GOP electorate is undecided as to which of the three candidates they prefer.
Charleston, S.C. attorney Richard Hricik is the lone Democrat who filed for the office. He will face the winner of the GOP primary in the November election.
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ABOUT THE AUTHOR…
Will Folks is the founding editor of the news outlet you are currently reading. Prior to founding FITSNews, he served as press secretary to the governor of South Carolina. He lives in the Midlands region of the state with his wife and eight children.
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2 comments
If they find someone that was committing massive amounts of fraud, will we elect them to Congress?
Since this story is trending, and I need to maintain my score of comments on 7 of the 14 trending stories on FITSNews, I shall, God willing and FITS permitting, post here an important comment on an important story which FITS totally ignored for reasons unknown to me.
That important story is the nationally-covered trial AND ACQUITTAL of Professor Chow in the defense-of-others shooting death of 14-year old LOADED-gun-toting Cyrus Carmack-Belton.
In national coverage of a South Carolina crime trial, it is perhaps second only to the Murdaugh case, or third behind that and Susan Smith’s drowning of her own two children to hang on to her rich once-boyfriend, or fourth behind those and Dylan roof.
The rank in national coverage is less important than race, hypocrisy about race, and appeasement which ignores the underlying problems until they re-explode.
Immediately after the martyrdom of the Charleston nine saints, the story became about the confederate flag. It later became about whether Mother Emmanuel Church hoarded the donations or distributed them to the victims’ families.
Few, if any, had the courage to address how a white teenager got in his head the idea that blacks want to rule the world and that he had to go shoot nine of them in a church to thwart that conspiracy.
Fewer still had the courage to explore how easy it was for Susan Smith to go on national television and plead with the imaginary black man (who, according to her lies, had taken her children with her hijacked Mazda Protegee) to return them.
And now, perhaps none other than I has the courage to explore why so many blacks insist that Asian immigrants open convenience stores to take the money of black customers and mistreat them to the point of shooting them for no reason.
But I put that aside for now because something as important is left unexplored; and things said by Cyrus’ parents seized my attention. Cyrus’ father said they have other children and that Cyrus (and his siblings?) was in Catholic school. Cyrus’ mother said that Cyrus’ “expensive black shoes” were missing and that the school principal had told Cyrus’ mother that Cyrus had given them to another student who did not have shoes.
I find that story naive and hard to believe, specially if the context is in a Catholic school.
Was that supposed beneficiary of Cyrus’ charity previously going to school bare-footed? And if it was indeed a Catholic school which required “expensive” black shoes as part of a disciplined uniform, where was the charity of the school itself in supplying the needy student with the necessary part of a disciplined uniform?
Not cynically but realistically, if Cyrus did indeed give his own “expensive black shoes” to another student, it was LIKELY not charity but one of three things: (1) in barter for the gun OR (2) in submission to a bullying bigger and meaner student OR (3) a rite of initiation into a gang which has infiltrated even a Catholic school; OR a combination of all three.
And I write that with fear and trepidation BUT with a sense of duty to alert parents and schools alike: do NOT shirk to the other the responsibility to know what your children/students are REALLY doing.
Do NOT sugar-coat your observations or suspicions.
And do NOT think that gangs and bullies cannot infiltrate gated communities or private schools. They likely already have.
We need a cultural revolution which says guns are not cool, abstinence is. The books you read and understood, not your well-shined “expensive black shoes,” should not be the real proof of your discipline. Your simplicity and sincere smiles, not your tattoos or your piercings, should be your beauty.
Yes! I said a revolution and I mean it.
If you have to choose between your children and capitalism (versus Christ saying the love of money is the root of all evils), which will you choose? Your children or money?
If you want to post the Holy Commandments in schools, emphasize “though shalt not covet thy neighbor’s ….”
And remember Jesus Christ’s answer with the Good Samaritan parable to the question: “Who is my neighbor?”