About 85 autism clinics in Minnesota are under investigation for tens of millions in Medicaid billing fraud.
The state’s Department of Human Services (DHS) is under a microscope for paying out outrageous amounts for services supposedly delivered by the state’s burgeoning autism treatment sector, according to KSTP-TV.
The records show that DHS paid out claims totally about $700 million since the state’s autism program began in 2014. But millions of that seems to be paying for services that were never rendered. And investigators say that some $20 million has been fraud.
Now, DHS is reportedly visiting every one of the state’s locations after data shows that at least 85 of them fraudulently billed the program.
One expert says that the state ignored the warning signs.
Dr. Eric Larsson with the Lovaas Institute Midwest says that some of the bills were obviously suspicious. “No apparent email address, no website. Nobody is answering the phone,” he said. “They’re certainly not trying to deliver services.”
The problem first came to light last December when the FBI raided two Minnesota autism clinics under suspicions of fraudulent billing, KROC radio reported at the time.
State DHS officials are now scrambling to make sure that the hundreds of autism centers in the state are submitting legitimate bills.
Two of the clinics under investigation are Smart Therapy Center, LLC in Minneapolis and Star Autism Center LLC in St. Cloud, which also had ties to the Feeding Our Future child meal fraud case.
The Feeding Our Future case focuses on the Somali community in and around Minneapolis and is the single largest COVID relief-fund fraud in the country, which occurred under Democrat Gov. Tim Walz’s (D-MN) tenure.
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