Auditor: DHS wrongly ignored autism kickback complaints

The Minnesota Office of the Legislative Auditor says the Department of Human Services’ Inspector General failed to investigate three kickback complaints in the state’s Early Intensive Developmental and Behavioral Intervention (EIDBI) autism program, despite already having the legal authority to do so. In a report released Tuesday, auditors found DHS reasonably closed most of the sampled complaints, but wrongly claimed it lacked authority to pursue kickback-only allegations and has been operating for decades under an administrative rule that cites the wrong federal fraud statute. That rule error, on the books since 1995, made it unclear whether DHS could suspend Medicaid payments while probing kickback schemes, and the OLA noted the department could have fixed it at any point in the past 30 years. The autism program, which serves Medicaid enrollees under age 21 and is used heavily by Twin Cities families, has already drawn a federal fraud investigation and criminal charges against six people in December. DHS Commissioner Jodi Harpstead’s successor Shireen Gandhi responded that the agency "values" the audit, stressed that most cases were handled appropriately, and pointed to a 2025 legislative change that now explicitly spells out DHS’s power to investigate and sanction kickbacks.