Citing allegations of widespread fraud, the Minnesota Department of Human Services announcing late Friday that it's looking to terminate Housing Stabilization Services.
That program is intended to help people find and keep housing. Housing Stabilization Services is a new Minnesota Medical Assistance benefit to help people with disabilities, including mental illness and substance use disorder, and seniors find and keep housing.
“DHS is rooting out fraud wherever we find it," said DHS Temporary Commissioner Shireen Gandhi. “We cannot allow one more cent of taxpayer money going out the door to providers who claim to serve Minnesotans in need of stable housing while lining their pockets for personal gain. As I made clear in my letter to CMS, our own data analysis has shown that this program does not have the necessary controls to stop bad actors, and we are urging CMS to approve our request to end this program as swiftly as possible.”
The move comes as the agency announced they've sent a letter to the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services asking to stop the Medicaid-funded benefit. The letter from the DHS Commissioner outlines steps being taken to protect enrollees and taxpayers, and requests authorization to terminate program immediately.
FBI investigators say they're looking into a massive scheme to defraud the state program.
State officials say they have suspended payments to 77 Housing Stabilization Services providers so far.
DHS says the do intend to redesign and relaunch the benefit.
"Toward that effort, DHS will work with the legislature, providers, community partners, and CMS to fully redesign the program with robust program integrity and service quality requirements to prevent bad actors from entering the program and enhance care," reads a statement from the Department of Human Services. "Once that work is complete, DHS will then work with CMS to submit a new program framework for approval."
“We take a zero-tolerance approach to fraud and will continue to take quick action to halt payments to any provider organizations we believe have been committing fraud in our HSS program,” Gandhi stressed. “Enough is enough.”