HAVANA, April 9, 2026 (BSS/AFP) - Cuba on Wednesday rejected US allegations of involvement in large-scale health insurance fraud in Florida, amid heightened tensions between Washington and Havana.

US Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. in an interview Tuesday claimed that Cuba's communist government was linked to a network that set up fictitious medical equipment companies "to steal" from the US government.

Speaking to a syndicated US radio program co-hosted by a former Fox news presenter, Kennedy said: "There's an entire racket that is run by the Cuban government of durable medical equipment."

"These companies are supposedly selling wheelchairs and knee braces but all they have is lists of patients. They charge Medicaid for them," he said.

"Most of them don't sell anything. They're just there to steal from the federal government," he said.

Mehmet Oz, the TV doctor who is now Trump's administrator for the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, told Fox News on Saturday that criminal networks billed millions of dollars for counterfeit medical equipment and then fled to Cuba with the proceeds.

Cuba's Foreign Ministry dismissed the allegations of official Cuban involvement as "slander" and said that US officials had provided no evidence of their claims.

It expressed willingness to "jointly confront transnational crimes originating in the US" by sharing intelligence.

The ministry added that individuals "linked to Medicare fraud in the United States" had already been prosecuted in Cuba.

The accusations from Kennedy and Oz come three months into a mounting US pressure campaign on longtime, arch-foe Cuba.

It began after President Donald Trump in January ordered the capture of Cuba's top ally, Venezuela's socialist leader Nicolas Maduro, in a military raid on Caracas.

After Maduro's ouster, Trump shut down Venezuelan oil supplies to energy-starved Cuba and threatened tariffs on other countries that attempted to fill the gap.

The oil blockade deepened a severe energy crisis on the Caribbean island, which has been under a US trade embargo for over six decades.

Trump has boasted of plans for "taking" Cuba but last week eased the pressure slightly by allowing through a Russian oil tanker.

Havana and Washington are in talks on de-escalation but the discussions remain at a "very preliminary" stage, according to Cuba's deputy foreign minister Josefina Vidal.