Minnesota
Ellison outlines his plan to take on Medicaid fraud in Minnesota
(FOX 9) – Attorney General Keith Ellison is throwing his support behind a piece of legislation to combat Medicaid fraud in Minnesota.
Ellison fraud proposal
What we know:
Attorney General Keith Ellison and Rep. Matt Norris unveiled a proposal for a revised Medical Assistance Protection (MAP) Act, which would increase fraud unit staffing for the attorney general’s office and give the attorney general new powers to combat fraud.
Dig deeper:
Ellison’s revised proposal adds 18 dedicated, specialized staff to the AG’s Medicaid Fraud Control Unit, which increases the unit from 32 staff members to 50.
Ellison also points out the feds match every dollar Minnesota pledges towards fighting Medicaid fraud on a three-to-one basis. So, Minnesota will only really need to pay for four of the 18 positions at a cost of $1.2 million per every two-year budget cycle.
The staffing increase also comes at the recommendation of the federal Department of Health and Human Services.
What else?:
The proposal would also change the definition of Medicaid fraud under state law to make it easier for prosecutors to go after fraudsters. Currently, Ellison says Medicaid fraud is defined as “presenting a false claim for reimbursement with intent to defraud.”
“That’s it,” said Ellison. “Such a narrow definition is challenging for prosecutors because it does not capture all the criminal conduct that can be part of a Medicaid fraud case.”
Ellison says the new proposal would ban acts like lying with the intent to defraud, falsifying records about the delivery of services, and destroying records when you receive a request from a state agency. The act would also increase the penalties for Medicaid fraud to match those of private sector fraud.
It would also give the attorney general’s office greater power to subpoena financial records and increase the statute of limitations to better handle longer-term fraud schemes.
Fraud report released
The backstory:
Ellison’s proposal comes two days after the release of a report by the man put in charge of combating fraud in Minnesota by Governor Walz. Program Integrity Director Tim O’Malley’s report found failures in oversight dating back to the 1970s.
Former Minnesota Department of Human Services workers also raised concerns that department leaders urged “compassion over compliance” when it came to fraud prevention.
The report also pointed to an example of lawmakers undermining state employees’ efforts to fight fraud.
The other side:
Republican lawmakers have also laid out their plans to combat fraud. GOP leaders are proposing the Fraud Isn’t Free Act, which creates consequences for agencies and commissioners who allow fraud to occur unchecked.
Big picture view:
Federal prosecutors have said that Medicaid fraud in Minnesota could total as high as $9 billion since 2018. Though state prosecutors have disputed that estimate, that claim, criticisms from President Trump, and the viral video created by right-wing influencer Nick Shirley have created an intense focus on fraud in the state.
Fraud also was a driving factor behind President Trump’s surge of federal officers into Minnesota in December and January.
BEMIDJI — The Minnesota Department of Employment and Economic Development recently announced over $1.4 million in child care economic development grants, including a $200,000 award to the
Northwest Minnesota Foundation
in Bemidji.
Split between 11 programs and organizations around the state, more than 80% of the awarded funds support programs in Greater Minnesota, with the aim of creating more than 1,100 new child care slots.
“Affordable, reliable child care is essential for a thriving economy,” DEED Commissioner Matt Varilek said in a release. “These grants are supporting working families by ensuring Minnesota parents are able to work knowing their child is well cared for by some of the best caregivers in the nation. We’re also helping employers retain talent and working together to establish the foundation for long-term economic vitality.”
DEED’s Child Care Economic Development Grant program provides funding to organizations and communities to invest in new or expanding child care businesses, including facility improvements, worker training, attraction, retention and licensing, and other strategies to address the child care shortage.
Since the office’s inception in July 2023, DEED has awarded over $13 million in grants to 56 organizations to fund child care startups or business expansions, resulting in over 4,000 new child care slots.
A new state evaluation found Minnesota’s voter registration system mostly works as intended, but some counties did not update their records accurately.
On Wednesday, the Office of the Legislative Auditor published a summary of new voter registration applications submitted in the summer and fall of 2024. The findings stated counties processed 96% of new applications within the legal time frames, but struggled to process applications when recieved within 20 days of an election.
The report also said counties did not always update voter registration records as required by law when the Office of the Secretary of State flagged possible disqualifying conditions, such as incarceration. Counties sent required notices within 10 days to 84% of registered voters whose incarceration or guardianship challenges they removed.
The report goes on to say counties followed the identity verification process correctly for 99.9% of applicants and followed the residency verification process correctly for 99% of applicants. But among applicants counties manually reviewed for residency, counties either inaccurately assigned voter statuses or failed to document their rationale in more than one-third of the cases reviewed.
The Secretary of State maintains the Statewide Voter Registration System, while counties are responsible for creating and maintaining their own voter registration records. As of January of 2026, nearly 3.8 million people were registered to vote in Minnesota.
Top officials respond
Reaction to the report from Minnesota leaders has been mixed, with some top Republicans saying Secretary of State Steve Simon is to blame for inactive voters being left on voter rolls.
However, Simon’s takeaway from the evaluation was mostly positive, saying, “the report found our office has established the appropriate procedures for counties and that counties have performed their work with a nearly perfect record of accuracy.”
Cory Kampf, president of the Minnesota Association of County Officers, said counties generally agreed with the recommendations but asked for more context. He added voter residency was verified in 99% of applications, following the correct processes.
Speaker Lisa Demuth, R-Cold Spring, and Leader Harry Niska, R-Ramsey, full statement reads: “This voter registration audit exposes major loopholes in our system, including the thousands of votes that were allowed to register and cast a ballot on Election Day but couldn’t be verified as legal voters. It also showed that the Secretary of State does not follow the law for inactive voters, choosing to leave voters on the rolls years after they should have been deactivated. These are major problems that need to be addressed. Integrity in elections is paramount, and Minnesotans deserve certainty that only legal voters are deciding our elections.”
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