ST. PAUL – Despite billions in tax dollars being stolen from state taxpayers due to fraud that has gone unchecked by the Department of Human Services (DHS) for years, Governor Walz has unveiled plans to centralize control over Medicaid spending inside the DHS.
State Representative Greg Davids (R-Preston) said while he agrees with the Governor’s suggestion to modernize technology used by state agencies and counties to provide social services programs, he is opposed to centralizing responsibility for 100% of Medicaid services at the agency that has allowed fraud in this state to run rampant for years.
“We have watched DHS whistleblowers come forward and say there were retaliated against for speaking up,” Davids said. “We’ve had independent audits find agency employees deliberately trying to mislead investigators. Giving more power to an agency that has done nothing to stop rampant fraud in this state is equivalent to allowing the fox to guard the henhouse.”
As part of the governor’s “transformation” of human services, Managed Care Organizations would be eliminated to give recipient eligibility decisions to DHS. Davids said this decision will lead to the hiring of many more permanent state employees, which will add to Minnesotans’ tax burden as the state already faces a more than $3 billion deficit in the next budget cycle.
Davids said one area that needs to be addressed is the modernization of the technology our counties use to implement programs like Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) and Medicaid. He said the 30-to-40-year-old software is outdated, inefficient, and doing next to nothing to help identify potential fraudsters.
“Our counties need the help, and if the counties have updated software they can help us,” Davids said. “But we should all be frustrated that when there was an $18 billion budget surplus two years ago, the governor and legislative leaders found other ways to waste this money. This problem has existed for decades, and its clear we need to do something about it right now, as counties cannot continue using outdated technology and maintain efficiency.”