The House Energy and Commerce Committee announced that it is launching a widespread investigation into the unprecedented fraud exposed in Minnesota. Committee Chairmen Brett Guthrie (R-KY), as well as Reps. John Joyce (R-PA) and Morgan Griffith (R-VA), both chairs of energy and commerce subcommittees, have requested information from Governor Tim Walz and the state’s Temporary Commissioner of Minnesota’s Department of Human Services, Shireen Gandhi, regarding Medicaid fraud.
According to the letter, the “swath of criminal schemes coming to light in Minnesota include overbilling, false records, identity theft, and phantom claims in Medicaid social service and health programs for the elderly and disabled, people struggling with addiction, and homelessness.” It further draws attention to an audit by the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS), which found that 14 high-risk programs have cost $3.75 billion in the state and federal taxpayer dollars annually.
“The extensive fraud schemes being perpetrated in Minnesota have wreaked havoc on government-funded health programs. We have an obligation to ensure finite taxpayer dollars are being used responsibly, and that the most vulnerable Americans are not being exploited to the benefit of fraudsters and foreign actors,” said Chairmen Guthrie, Joyce, and Griffith.
“As members of Congress and this Committee, our track record has made our continued commitment to ridding government programs of waste, fraud, mismanagement, and abuse clear,” they added. “This letter is the next step in the Committee’s work to root out fraud and restore program integrity in our federal health programs nationwide.”
House Oversight Committee Chairman James Comer (R-KY) is also probing fraud in Minnesota, and called for Walz to testify on the matter in February.
