Billions More In Suspected Medicaid Fraud Discovered During Walz Administration

Thompson said the scale of fraud in Minnesota surpasses that seen in other states and threatens services for people who genuinely depend on them.

While fraud cases often involve providers inflating bills, Thompson said at a Minneapolis news conference that some companies were set up to deliver no services at all, instead siphoning federal funds to bankroll international travel, luxury vehicles and lavish lifestyles, CBS News noted.

“The magnitude cannot be overstated,” Thompson said. “What we see in Minnesota is not a handful of bad actors committing crimes. It’s staggering, industrial-scale fraud.”

Meanwhile, Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services Administrator Mehmet Oz warned Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz on Friday that the state risks losing federal Medicaid funding unless it restores what he called the program’s “integrity.”

In a post on X, Oz claimed more than $1 billion had been stolen through a massive Medicaid fraud scheme carried out by “bad actors” within Minnesota’s Somali community. He then alleged that some of the funds “may have even made its way to the Somalian terrorist group (al-Shabab).”

“Our staff at CMS told me they’ve never seen anything like this in Medicaid — and everyone from Gov. Tim Walz on down needs to be investigated, because they’ve been asleep at the wheel,” Oz said, adding these measures that needed to be implemented within the next 60 days:

• Send weekly updates on anti-fraud efforts to CMS
• Freeze enrollment of high-risk providers for six months
• Verify all current providers as “legitimate” or remove them
• Send CMS a corrective action plan to prevent fraud in the future

“If we’re unsatisfied with the state’s plans or cooperation, we’ll stop paying the federal share of these programs,” Oz noted. Continue reading…