Maine
Watchdog criticizes Maine’s management of billions in Medicaid funding
BANGOR (BDN) — Maine’s Medicaid program lacks the proper controls to manage the billions of dollars going to health providers across the state, according to an audit released Thursday.
The findings from State Auditor Matt Dunlap’s office come amid a torrent of calls for increased scrutiny of how the state spends its MaineCare dollars and allegations of fraud, which has prompted another battle between President Donald Trump’s administration and Gov. Janet Mills.
Front and center in the growing debate is the embattled Portland health care provider Gateway Community Services, which is currently under investigation for potentially defrauding MaineCare largely through overinflated and underdocumented claims for interpreter services.
Dunlap’s report doesn’t mention either Gateway or interpreter services, but it does warn the state that inadequate monitoring of MaineCare could lead to federal regulators finding Maine out of compliance with its regulations. The state disputed that, but the watchdog’s words could add heat to a tense dispute between the Mills and Trump administrations.
Republicans stretching from top Medicaid regulator and former TV personality Dr. Mehmet Oz to the Maine Legislature are pressuring Mills on the issue during her heated U.S. Senate primary. Dunlap himself is running in a Democratic primary for Maine’s open 2nd Congressional District.
The Maine Department of Health and Human Services paused MaineCare payments to Gateway in December while it investigated “credible allegations of fraud.” The pause came as a result of an audit by DHHS that included a review of 15,000 claims made by Gateway between March 2021 and December 2022.
Dunlap’s report said the Program Integrity Unit, MaineCare’s internal auditing arm, “may not provide adequate monitoring of all Medicaid services. Medicaid programs are jointly funded by states and the federal government, but administration of the programs are mostly left to states.
In recent months, Oz has taken an increasing interest in how Maine is overseeing its program. He sent a letter demanding detailed information regarding the state’s oversight of Medicaid spending, outlining concerns and mentioning a federal criminal case against two interpreters who are charged with defrauding the federal government by filing false tax returns.
The case alleges that two interpreters filed false tax documents with the federal government showing their companies were paid for interpreter services that didn’t happen. The third defendant in the case was an employee of the Lewiston-based Bright Future Healthier You, who died after she was charged.
Bright Future Healthier You was the largest biller of MaineCare for interpreting services in the last 10 years. The company itself has not been accused of any wrongdoing.
The case is the first case the federal government has brought in Maine since a 2021 report by a federal investigator that outlined a suspicious billing pattern for interpreter services. The report highlighted that the billing patterns seemed especially prominent among providers working with Maine’s Somali community and indicated widespread fraud within the MaineCare system.
Gateway was the second-highest biller of interpreter services in the last 10 years and has been the subject of numerous fraud allegations dating back to May 2025, when The Maine Wire, the media arm of the conservative Maine Policy Institute, first reported on claims from a former employee that Gateway falsified records.
Oz’s letter followed an audit performed by the U.S Department of Health and Human Services that found that Maine had made at least $45.6 million in improper Medicaid payments for support services for children with autism in 2023.
In November, widespread federal fraud prosecutions began in Minnesota, and with them, the employee, Chris Bernardini’s claims resurfaced in national conservative news outlets. Then, in December, U.S. Rep. James Comer of Kentucky, the top Republican on the House oversight committee, sent a letter to the U.S. Treasury that identified Gateway, along with its founder Abdullahi Ali, as targets in a broader welfare fraud investigation.
The Maine Department of Health and Human Services disagreed with Dunlap’s finding, saying it resulted from a “misunderstanding” of the federal regulations and how the department is structured. The department also said Dunlap’s findings discounted the regular ongoing checks the Program Integrity Unit undertakes on a more regular basis.
Dunlap said his office wasn’t persuaded by the department’s criticism and that the department “did not provide evidence of utilization control review procedures.”
A Maine lawmaker is preparing to push for legislation that would ban almost all of the controversial automatic license plate readers popping up around the state.
Rep. David Boyer, R-Poland, said he submitted a bill title to ban both municipalities and police departments from using the readers with an exception for cameras used for toll collection. This is the first step in the legislative process. Details may be added to the bill later, and it won’t be considered at least until the Legislature reconvenes in January.
Automatic license plate readers are proliferating in Maine and across the country. Some municipalities here are using cameras by the companies Flock and Verkada. The cameras are meant to alert police departments if a vehicle connected to an active investigation passes by. Footage is sometimes shared with police across the country, raising privacy concerns.
Boyer said local officials in his district covering have the “good taste” to have avoided using license plate readers so far, but he added that his constituents are likely to encounter them in neighboring Auburn. That city, which is the main service center near Boyer’s district, recently approved funding to install Flock cameras at intersections and in neighborhoods.
He said the proposal was inspired by reader malfunctions in other states. Some people have found themselves under investigation after camera errors. But Boyer, a libertarian-leaning lawmaker, also said he was “just trying to slow down the impending surveillance state.”
It’s difficult to pinpoint how many automatic plate readers are running in Maine. DeFlock, an open-source network on which users report sightings of Flock and other cameras, lists 50 stretching from York to Bangor. The real number may be much higher. Earlier this year, Hancock County said it would install 13 Motorola license plate readers across six locations, but so far, none appear on DeFlock’s map.
Civil libertarians on both sides of the political aisle have voiced anxiety over the proliferation of AI-powered surveillance tools in Maine. The state’s chapter of the American Civil Liberties Union recently called Flock “a significant threat to our constitutional rights to privacy.” In April, the conservative Maine Wire also published an article critical of them.
When Hancock County began installing its cameras, some expressed fear they could be used for immigration enforcement despite policies that prevent data sharing with immigration officials. Similar concerns have come up in South Portland, where police recently stopped sharing footage with Flock’s national database accessible to departments across the country.
It’s not clear how the bill might affect other surveillance programs that are not specifically aimed at license plates. Bangor and surrounding towns recently faced significant backlash over their use of Placer AI, a program that uses phone data to monitor foot traffic. In some parts of the state, police are also using AI-powered cameras to generate police reports.
WASHINGTON, D.C. (WABI) – Maine veterans returned home Sunday after a weekend in Washington, D.C.
Giving local veterans and their loved ones a visit to the capital of the nation they dedicated their lives to is the aim of Honor Flight Maine.
Marking their second trip of the year, the nonprofit provided about 70 Pine Tree State veterans a free trip to Washington to visit the memorials and monuments dedicated to their service.
For many, this was this first time seeing the capital in person.
“Unreal,” “a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity,” and “tear-dropping” were among the sentiments shared by veterans about the Honor Flight. Others remarked on the memories revived by visiting the ceremonial spaces.
“I have some friends that’s over there, so it really was nice,” said Edward Lee, a Vietnam veteran from Bangor.
Lee was able to find one friend’s name engraved on the Vietnam Veterans Memorial. Using graphite and a piece of paper, he made a rubbing of the name to take home.
Rose Marie Curtis, a Navy nurse who served in Vietnam, said seeing the three nurses depicted at the Vietnam Women’s Memorial sent her back in time.
“For so many years, you don’t think about something. You’re doing this and doing that and having children, whatever. But this really brings you back,” Curtis described.
Not only does the trip give veterans the opportunity to see these sites, it allows a chance to connect; with perhaps a past or present self, and with fellow veterans.
“It’s what makes Honor Flight Maine special because you’re with your own kind,” explained Charlie Paul, a Vietnam War veteran who has been involved with Honor Flight Maine for a decade. “We’re a segment of society, they remember us on Memorial Day. They remember us on Veteran’s Day. They remember us on Armed Forces Day. But then they forget about us. And so for us as an organization to take them down here and see their memorials, it just lets them know they’re that special.”
For Lincoln veteran Richard Rollins, the visit gave him “closure,” considering, “…when I got out of the service, I mean, to be honest, even in ’79, I was never thanked.”
Among former servicemembers of all ages, father-son veterans James and Michael Sherman said the trip opened up conversation, sharing stories they had never told each other about their service.
“It means the world that people care, and we shouldn’t wait a moment to tell the people that are important to us what they mean to us,” Michael Sherman remarked.
Copyright 2026 WABI. All rights reserved.
KENNEBUNK, Maine (WGME) — A car caught on fire on the Maine turnpike Saturday.
It happened in Kennebunk in the southbound lanes of the turnpike.
A car caught on fire on the Maine turnpike Saturday. (Courtesy of Kennebunk Fire Rescue)
You can see a large cloud of black smoke coming from the scene.
Nobody was hurt.
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Firefighters were able to extinguish the flames.
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