Paid Leave program protections aim to reduce fraudulent usage

A family and medical benefit insurance program for full- and part-time Minnesota workers begins Jan. 1, 2026.

Per its website, Minnesota Paid Leave “provides payments and job protections to people who need time away from work for their own health or to care for a family member.”

The program’s arrival comes after the well-publicized potential that billions of dollars in fraud have been uncovered in other state-run programs, including “Feeding Our Future,” housing stabilization and autism treatment.

“It is our strong hope that internal controls in this program are robust and are followed because we do not want to be back here a year from now having a fraud hearing,” said Rep. Kristin Robbins (R-Maple Grove). She chairs the House Fraud Prevention and State Agency Oversight Policy Committee that received an overview Wednesday of anti-fraud controls.

“I’ve been really close to this program all the way through,” said Rep. Steve Elkins (DFL-Bloomington), “and if it bombs on implementation, I’m going to take it personally because I really do believe that we’re doing this right.”

Minnesota is the 13th state to implement a paid leave program.

“We’ve tried to model our program on the best practices that we’ve seen around the country,” said Evan Rowe, deputy commissioner at the Department of Employment and Economic Development.

Plenty of steps are being taken.

For example, strengthened security measures within the program include multi-factor authentication, three levels of identity proofing to protect a user’s private information, and dynamic security that adapts to user’s behaviors and risk factors.

“Whether it’s a caregiver or whether it’s a person taking leave for their own medical needs, they will need to pass through that digital front door to validate their identity. It will be run against two levels of validation: a liveness check and a documentation check,” said Minnesota IT Services Deputy Commissioner Jon Eichten. Checks will include photo matching.

In addition, continual software testing is performed by personnel with Minnesota IT Services, paid leave program and Nava, the program vendor.

“There is no one silver bullet for program integrity. A combination of people, process and technology are essential,” Rowe said.

Further, Rowe said applications will be reviewed by claims teams “supported by robust internal processes and integrity tools, including data analytics.” And all claims must be certified by a health care provider.

[MORE: View the DEED presentation]

Minnesota is already a top performing state in unemployment insurance integrity.

“We are leveraging the UI program’s expertise and data to validate requests and enhance paid leave program integrity,” Rowe said.

Based on what she has seen so far, Legislative Auditor Judy Randall expressed optimism.

“Prevention is the most effective and the cheapest way to handle fraud. Putting the controls in place up front is by far the most effective way. It’s much better than pay-and-chase which is what we have found ourselves doing in some programs  … There’s a lot of good things here, (but) the proof is in the pudding.”