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Independent journalist Nick Shirley joined Saturday in America to lay out the results of a new investigation into adult daycare billing in New York City, describing confrontations in Queens and doxxing threats he says followed his reporting. Shirley told host Kayleigh McEnany that his work forced a closer look at taxpayer-funded programs and that he’s had to beef up security after facing online harassment.
Shirley’s documentary alleges massive billing for phantom patients at social adult day care centers in Flushing and other Queens neighborhoods, tying in local pharmacies and home-care companies that he says funneled public dollars while providing little to no services. Conservative outlets covering the story reported figures ranging from roughly $190 million up to reports claiming $310 million or more in improper claims tied to the network Shirley uncovered.
His method is old-school shoe-leather reporting mixed with modern data sleuthing: Shirley says he used public CMS and Medicaid data, walked block after block in neighborhoods like Flushing, and filmed empty rooms, locked doors, and suspicious clustering of dozens of licensed entities at single addresses. That same hands-on approach is what made his Minnesota reporting go viral, and now Shirley’s New York work is being packaged as the next installment of the same fraud exposé playbook.
Unsurprisingly, the establishment and some Democratic leaders have rushed to attack the messenger rather than chase the money; officials in states where Shirley’s earlier work landed have publicly pushed back and tried to discredit the videos instead of immediately pursuing accountability. Minnesota’s fallout from Shirley’s earlier reporting shows how quickly officials will circle the wagons, even as federal and state investigators begin to follow the paper trail he highlights.
This is the kind of reporting Americans should cheer, not smear. When a young independent reporter exposes what looks like an organized pattern of theft from seniors and taxpayers, the right response from media and government should be subpoenas, audits, and prosecutions — not lawsuits, smear campaigns, or bureaucratic coverups that protect entrenched interests.
Hardworking taxpayers deserve leaders who will follow Shirley’s leads and clean house, not defend a broken status quo that funnels public money into shadow operations. If our officials are serious about rooting out fraud, they’ll protect whistleblowers and independent journalists, open real investigations, and bring the full force of the law down on anyone stealing from the vulnerable and from American families.
