Minnesota demands answers in Medicaid fraud fight with Trump

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.

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.

Welcome to The Hill’s Healthcare newsletter , we’re Nathaniel Weixel and Joseph Choi — every week we follow the latest moves on how Washington impacts your health.

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How policy will be impacting the healthcare sector this week and beyond:

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Local and state headlines on healthcare:

Pushing physicians to the brink ( Chicago Health Magazine )

Florida health officials meet amid fierce debate over childhood vaccine plans ( Politico )

Medical debt is crushing hospital patients in Los Angeles . Health officials may have a fix. ( KFF Health News )

Health news we’ve flagged from other outlets:

H.I.V. research networks face uncertain future amid funding delays ( The New York Times )

Why this startup is taking its AI to predict breast cancer risk directly to patients ( Stat )

Four deaths prompt FDA safety concerns about novel schizophrenia drug ( MedPage Today )

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