Today reporting indicates Minnesota’s Medicaid program has been defrauded millions of dollars by a ring of bad actors, this time using Faribault residents to maximize their reimbursements. The fraud was conducted by falsifying trips to service providers in the Twin Cities, billing for services not provided, and stealing people’s identity as fake clients.

“Minnesotans are tired of hearing about fraud after fraud, after fraud. This simply doesn’t happen as much in other states,” said Sen. John Jasinski, who represents Faribault in the Minnesota Senate.

Reporting by the Minnesota Reformer highlights that Minnesota has more fraud convictions compared to other states with similar operations, a fact the Attorney General’s office seemingly boasted about.

“It’s not enough to just convict after the fact, we must do better to stop fraud before it starts,” Jasinski continued.

“We need diligent state employees who take the time and effort to verify services and billing before handing over taxpayer dollars and leaders who will hold our departments accountable to protect the taxpayer first.”

Notably, Department of Education Commissioner Willie Jett refused to discipline or fire any employees after a scathing report from the Legislative Auditor highlighted the actions that should and could have taken to stop the Feeding our Future fraud early in the pandemic. When asked about that decision, Governor Tim Walz defended it by saying no employees broke the law in the course of their actions. However, state law does require state employees to report suspected fraud to the Legislative Auditor, and records do not indicate a report was ever made.