Provider who pleaded guilty to defrauding Minnesota autism program billed for millions more than state approved
Federal prosecutors say a 28-year-old Minnesota woman claiming to provide services to treat children with autism stole $14 million in Medicaid funds.
But state records obtained by WCCO show that her company, Smart Therapy Center, billed the state for millions more than that.
From 2021 to 2025, Smart Therapy Center submitted claims totaling $31.8 million across all Minnesota Department of Human Services programs, according to that data. But the provider was only approved for a fraction of those payments.
Asha Farhan Hassan pleaded guilty on Thursday to one count of wire fraud. She was the first person charged with defrauding the Early Intensive Development and Behavior Intervention program — known as EIDBI for short. Prosecutors said she also stole $465,000 as part of the Feeding Our Future fraud scheme, in which dozens have been charged and convicted of stealing funds from a child nutrition program during the pandemic.
The U.S. Attorney's Office also announced charges against another defendant, Abdinajib Hassan Yussuf, for a similar scheme. Prosecutors said his company, Star Autism Center LLC, offered kickback payments to parents who enrolled their children to receive EIDBI services there.
Like Smart Therapy, Star Autism Center billed the state for more than the Department of Human Services ultimately paid out in claims. The state denied $1.2 million for services Smart Autism said it provided over the last two years.
Investigators have said unusual billing patterns, explosive growth in payments and other outliers are red flags for fraud.
"We are looking for providers that are billing us in ways that are not common or expected in relation to other providers now. That can take many different forms, but the short answer is anomalies and outliers that show unexpected patterns of billing compared to other similarly situated providers," James Clark, the inspector general for the Department of Human Services, told WCCO during a news conference on Tuesday.
Joe Thompson, the first assistant U.S. attorney in the Minnesota office, said Thursday that "most" of the individuals they are investigating or charged have multiple health care entities and "each of which seems to be created to bill a specific Medicaid program."
He said there are active federal investigations across 14 Medicaid programs in Minnesota deemed "high risk" for fraud, including EIDBI and housing stabilization services for which there were new criminal charges announced Thursday.
From 2018 through 2025, all autism providers in total billed $1.6 billion across all DHS Medicaid programs, according to state records.
They were only approved for 56% of those claims.