The Deputy Secretary of the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), Jim O’Neill, announced that Somalia’s diplomat to the United Nations is connected to a company scrutinized by authorities over Medicaid fraud.
“I can confirm public speculation that Ambassador Abukar Dahir Osman, Permanent Representative of Somalia to the UN and President of the Security Council, is in fact associated with Progressive Health Care Services, a home health agency in Cincinnati,” O’Neill wrote on X. “HHS has previously taken action against Progressive in response to a conviction for Medicaid fraud.”
Osman’s LinkedIn profile lists him as having served as Managing Director” of Progressive Health Care Services from 2014 until May 2019. Conservative social media account Libs of TikTok said another healthcare company operates in the “SAME SUITE as his with a different name, and multiple others at the same address, all with Somali names.”
O’Neill’s statement is the latest development from HHS surrounding the investigation into Minnesota fraud.
This week, HHS, through its Administration for Children and Families, moved to pull a series of Biden-era child care policies that mandated that states pay providers before verifying child attendance. Under the new change, attendance-based billing will be restored, upfront payments will not be required, and voucher flexibility will return, the agency explained.
O’Neill previously announced that the agency froze federal child care payments to Minnesota on social media, writing, “We have frozen all child care payments to the state of Minnesota. You have probably read the serious allegations that the state of Minnesota has funneled millions of taxpayer dollars to fraudulent daycares across Minnesota over the past decade.” The new action requires ACF payments across the nation to include a “justification and a receipt or photo evidence before we send money to a state,” O’Neill said.
