Tim Waltz is the gift that keeps on giving.
Even after the disclosure of the massive amounts of fraud in the SNAP and Covid programs now the Fed's have started arresting people for defrauding the Medicaid program to the tune of FUCKING 18 BILLION dollars.
Today U.S. Attorney's Office anouced over 25 arrests for massive, statewide MedicAid fraud with investiagtions continuting.
https://www.fox9.com/news/minnesota-fraud-us-attorney-holding-noon-conference-thursday (
https://archive.ph/HXQ8C)
First Assistant U.S. Attorney Joe Thomposon spoke candidly about the scale of the fraud being uncovered in the state.
"The fraud is not small. It isn't isolated," Thompson said. "What we see in Minnesota is not a handful of bad actors committing crimes. It's a staggering industrial scale of fraud. It's swamping Minnesota and calling into question everything we know about our state."
During the conference, the U.S. Attorney's Office highlighted 14 Medicaid services that are flagged as being at a "high risk" for facilitating fraud.
The services include the following:
- Housing stabilization
- Adult companion
- Assertive community treatment
- Intensive residential treatment
- Adult day services
- Recuperative care
- Integrated community
- Peer recovery
- PCA/Community first
- Non-emergency medical transport
- Adult rehabilitative mental health
- Autism services
- Night supervision
- Individualized home care
Those 14 programs have cost a total of $18 billion since 2018, including $3.5 billion in 2024 alone. Investigators are now working to determine how much of those funds were fraudulently distributed.
When asked to estimate how much of the $18 billion could be fraud, Thompson said it's possible that the total could be half or more.
"I don't make these generalizations in a hasty way," said Thompson. "So I when I say a significant amount, I'm talking in an order of half or more. But we'll see. When I look at the claims data and the providers, I see more red flags than I see legitimate providers and overwhelmingly so.
When asked if more than half of the $18 billion could be fraud, Thompson confirmed: "I'm saying that's very possible."
But, Thompson says, the U.S. Attorney's Office is routinely uncovering fraud in the state. "You don't see fraud on this scale in other states. And, part of that is just, we sit here as a team, and it's a relatively small team or a relatively small U.S. Attorney's Office. And every day we look under a rock and find a new $50 million fraud scheme. That shouldn't be the case in a state of our size. Certainly other states have problems with fraud, but I think our problem is unique."
According to U.S. Department of Justice figures prior to Thursday's announcement, there has been about
$822 million in fraud from Minnesota services, including $300 million from
Feeding Our Future, the possibility of nearly $220 million in
autism program fraud and $302 million from the
Housing Stabilization Program.
Meanwhile,
Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz this month announced a fraud prevention program, which is being directed by the former head of the Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Apprehension.
So after losing 250 million to Somali fraudsters milking the SNAP and Covid and Child Care programs Minnesota is now facing a potential loss of over 9 billion taxpayer dollars in MedicAid fraud.
Yah, this dude was a few step away from being the VP remember.
