Minnesota demands answers in Medicaid fraud fight with Trump
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Minnesota demands answers in Medicaid fraud fight with Trump
The Trump administration is escalating its Medicaid fraud fight against Minnesota, and state officials are bracing for hundreds of millions of dollars to be cancelled in the coming weeks.
© AP Photo/Rod Lamkey, Jr.
Minnesota’s temporary human services commissioner and state Medicaid director John Connolly said the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) could officially withdraw up to $259 million in Medicaid payments that the Trump administration froze earlier this year.
CMS has already threatened to withhold Medicaid funding amounting to a $2 billion cut to the state, and it has frozen $550 million over the past several quarters because the administration said payments raised red flags for fraud. State officials are expecting to hear in the coming weeks if the first of the deferrals will result in a disallowance.
A disallowance is an official denial of federal Medicaid matching funds to a state for spending that doesn’t meet federal requirements.
The Trump administration has honed in on blue states ahead of the midterm elections, alleging massive Medicaid fraud and abuse. Administration officials have described red flags being raised over claims for providing care to deceased people, as well as allegedly billing for large numbers of patients at the same time.
At the time of the freeze over the summer, the administration said the funding is not being cut, but merely paused until state officials can provide more information to show that the “high-risk” Medicaid claims are justified.
But in a letter to CMS Administrator Mehmet Oz sent last week, Connolly asked to see the specific allegations.
“Minnesota has repeatedly asked CMS and federal law enforcement to provide evidence supporting public claims of fraud in Minnesota’s Medicaid program … to date, no evidence has been shared,” he wrote.
Connolly said the state is ready to take prompt action if and when the administration provides credible evidence.
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