Minnesota nonprofit says it is at risk of closing over potential funding pauses in response to fraud
The federal and state crackdowns on fraud in Minnesota are creating collateral damage in programs aimed at helping people with disabilities.
One nonprofit says it is at risk of shutting down because of potential funding pauses. But supporters of the crackdown say it's all necessary to get to the root of schemes that have cost Minnesota taxpayers hundreds of millions of dollars.
The latest crackdown is from Dr. Mehmet Oz, the director of the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services. In a statement on X, Oz said, in part, "Our message to Walz is clear either fix this in 60 days or start looking under your bed for spare change because we are done footing the bill for your incompetence."
"We are glad to see CMS affirming the governor's executive action and look forward to continuing to work together," Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz said in response.
In late October, Walz announced the audit of 14 high-risk state Medicaid-funded programs, warning their funding could be paused.
Calli Brown is the CEO of Learnability, a nonprofit that provides 24-hour home health aides to severely disabled individuals, and says it is part of the 14 high-risk programs.
Brown has written to the federal program, saying she will have to shut down if the federal government limits the in-home care she provides to six hours a day, down from 16.
"I serve about 20 clients, and my clients are of the highest needs individuals," Brown said. "Programs like mine are victims of this fraud, because truly, we should be the recipients of funding to provide services honestly and high-level professionalism."
She is baffled by the fraud because she has to produce reports on every home visit and her employees' home visits are electronically tracked.
"All of our visits are provable," Brown said.
She says her nonprofit welcomes the audit, but the possibility of losing funding at the end of January has left families of their patients scrambling, and endangers the future of Learnability.
But State Rep. Patti Anderson, the vice chair of the Minnesota House Fraud Committee, says the audits and investigations are necessary.
"It's very, very unfortunate, because these are dollars that should be going to people that need it. And there are folks who need these services, but we have to get to the bottom of it," Anderson said.
In addition to all the investigations, the state of Minnesota has issued a two-year pause on new state licenses for group homes for the disabled.
The office of Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz released this statement: "Protecting quality providers is one of the most important reasons to combat fraud. We don't expect complying with an audit to be prohibitive for law-abiding providers."