WASHINGTON (Reuters) -Representatives of Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency have been working at the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services where they were granted access to agency systems and technology, CMS said on Wednesday.
CMS oversees Medicare, the health insurance program for older and disabled Americans, and Medicaid, for lower-income enrollees. Together they provide coverage for over 140 million people in the United States.
“CMS has two senior Agency veterans – one focused on policy and one focused on operations – who are leading the collaboration with DOGE, including ensuring appropriate access to CMS systems and technology,” the agency said in a statement.
Musk, the world’s richest man, has been tasked by U.S. President Donald Trump to identify fraud and waste in government. Musk has in a matter of days been able to exert unprecedented control over America’s 2.2-million-member federal workforce and begin a dramatic reshaping of government.
“We are taking a thoughtful approach to see where there may be opportunities for more effective and efficient use of resources in line with meeting the goals of President Trump,” the CMS statement said.
CMS regularly deals with improper payments that represent fraud or abuse but might also be due to a state, contractor, or provider missing an administrative step.
The development was first reported on Wednesday by the Wall Street Journal, which citing people familiar with the matter, said DOGE representatives had gained access to key payment and contracting systems.
The representatives have been on site at the agency’s offices this week and are looking at the technology on which the systems run, as well as the spending that flows through them, with a focus on pinpointing what they consider fraud or waste, according to the report.
DOGE representatives are also examining the agency’s organizational design and how it is staffed, the WSJ said.
Referencing the WSJ report, Musk – without providing evidence – posted “this is where the big money fraud is happening,” on social media platform X, which he owns.
When asked about DOGE accessing CMS payment and contracting systems, representatives for the White House did not address specifics but defended Musk and DOGE’s actions overall, saying they were fulfilling Trump’s commitment to make the federal government more accountable.
One of the systems accessed by the DOGE representatives, the WSJ reported, is the CMS Acquisition Lifecycle Management system, which includes information about contracts.
The report, citing one of the people familiar with the DOGE’s work at CMS, said that Musk’s allies have not been given access to databases that include identifiable personal health information of Medicare or Medicaid enrollees.
The DOGE’s access is “read-only,” meaning that its affiliates cannot make changes to the systems, the WSJ reported.
The U.S. Treasury said on Tuesday that Musk’s team has been granted “read-only access” to its payment system codes but denied that this cut off any government payments, including those of Social Security or Medicare.
(Reporting by Sriparna Roy and Christy Santhosh in Bengaluru, Ahmed Aboulenein in Washington; Editing by Alan Barona, Shounak Dasgupta and Deepa Babington)
