Minnesota lawmakers are set to tackle a number of issues this upcoming session. Among them? The budget, waste, and fraud. And lawmakers have a new idea to help battle what has become a huge issue in Minnesota.
The FBI raided Minneapolis and St. Cloud autism centers earlier in December as part of an investigation into Medicaid fraud in Minnesota’s autism program that a search warrant application said revealed “substantial evidence” of millions of dollars in fraudulent claims. Investigators found evidence of the autism fraud while investigating Feeding Our Future which blew up into one of the biggest COVID fraud cases in the country.
Republican State Senator Mark Koran (Chisago-Isanti) telling WCCO Radio's Blois Olson on the Sunday Take that more needs to be done inside each agency, in terms of accountability.
"What we haven't seen since I got here in 2017, is we haven't seen a laundry list of shortcomings that they believe they have to stop these things," Koran says.
Last week, Walz was asked to comment specifically on fraud detected at autism centers that were recently reimbursed over a million dollars by the state, adding that he's "furious" about it.
"We've got situations where we know, and in these last cases we're investigating them, we turn them to the FBI," Walz told WCCO's Vineeta Sawkar last Thursday. "But as the law is written, we need to continue to pay them, even though I said that has to end. If we suspect you there, we need to err on the side of, you can take us to court and sue us, but we're not paying you because we think, and we have good indications, of this."
DFL State Senator Heather Gustufson (Anoka, Ramsey, Washington) also offered her insight on the Sunday Take with Blois Olson.
"I think it's important to match the solution with the problem that we're seeing, and I don't know that expanding like, agency jurisdiction or expanding the authority of OLA is really what the solution that meets that moment," Gustafson says.
Gustafson adds she will push to create a new watchdog: the Office of the Inspector General. Speaking to The WCCO Morning News Monday with Adam Carter, another DFL lawmaker, Senator Matt Klein (Dakota, Washington) agreed with Gustafson and says they'll work to create the new position during the session.
Koran says he thinks that role is needed within the state, but with some guardrails.
"I think an inspector general office is important, but it would have to be completely independent of an agency and even the executive body," Koran said. "They would need the autonomy to look out and prosecute."
Gustafson shared her reaction to what the GOP is supporting in terms of change.
"And I'm not sure that they are understanding what the power of each of the agencies has," explains Gustafson. "I've heard that this should just be handled within the agency and that they should just stop the payments immediately when they see or detect something going on that might not be on the up and up. But they don't have the authority to do that, and so that isn't a viable solution."
The legislative session starts January 14.