Ellison pitches tougher Medicaid fraud powers, bigger unit

Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison and Rep. Matt Norris are rolling out a revised Medical Assistance Protection (MAP) Act that would expand the AG’s Medicaid Fraud Control Unit from 32 to 50 staff and broaden what state law defines as Medicaid fraud, directly affecting how fraud cases are built against Twin Cities providers and middlemen. The 18 new positions would be 75% federally funded under a 3‑to‑1 match from HHS, leaving Minnesota on the hook for roughly four FTEs at a cost of about $1.2 million per biennium, a staffing boost Ellison says federal officials themselves have recommended. Beyond claiming "false" reimbursement with intent to defraud, the bill would explicitly criminalize lying to defraud, falsifying service records, and destroying records after a state records request, raise Medicaid‑fraud penalties to match private‑sector fraud, lengthen the statute of limitations, and give the AG broader subpoena powers for financial records so longer, more complex schemes can be prosecuted. The proposal lands two days after Gov. Walz’s new Program Integrity Director, Tim O’Malley, issued a scathing report that said Minnesota’s oversight failures date back to the 1970s and that some DHS leaders prioritized "compassion over compliance," and as Republicans push a competing Fraud Isn’t Free Act that targets agencies and commissioners. In the background, federal prosecutors have floated a $9 billion since‑2018 Medicaid‑fraud figure that state officials dispute, viral right‑wing videos and Trump’s attacks have turned Minnesota into a national punching bag, and Metro Surge ICE raids were explicitly justified in part on "fraud tourist" narratives, giving this bill high political heat as well as real prosecutorial consequences for Minneapolis–St. Paul hospitals, clinics, disability providers and day‑care operators.