Minnesota Medicaid Audit Sparks Political Debate

Minnesota Republicans are criticizing Democrats for allegedly keeping lawmakers uninformed for several months regarding a state-commissioned Medicaid review. This report identified over $52 million in improper payments. Republicans argue that the delay prevented them from acting on the report’s findings during the legislative session before the election.

Minnesota Republican Speaker of the House, Lisa Demuth, expressed her concerns to Fox News Digital. She stated, “Fraud here has exploded under the Walz administration. Governor Walz has held no one in his entire administration accountable for the level of fraud. It definitely brings into question what is in that report and why are they hiding it?”

Governor Tim Walz’s administration had commissioned Optum to conduct a third-party review of Minnesota’s Medicaid program, targeting 14 high-risk services. The report uncovered over $52 million in improper payments, but clarified that these payments do not automatically indicate ‘fraud, waste, or abuse.’ The Department of Human Services released a heavily redacted version of the report in February, prompting calls from Republican lawmakers to release the full version to better address risks during the legislative session.

“Our election here in Minnesota is 29 days away. We’re just four weeks out, and you really have to wonder why they are refusing to do this,” Demuth, who is also the GOP gubernatorial candidate, told Fox News Digital.

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Minnesota has a divided state legislature. The Democratic–Farmer–Labor Party holds a narrow 34–33 majority in the Senate, while the House faces a rare 67–67 partisan tie.

Democratic Governor Tim Walz initiated the audit in October 2025, before allegations of widespread fraud involving Minnesota’s Somali diaspora gained national attention. These mounting fraud allegations contributed to political pressure that led to Walz ending his re-election campaign in January.

Republican state Senator Jordan Rasmusson also accused the Walz administration and Democrats of downplaying the fraud issue. Rasmusson mentioned, “I think it’s really hard for Democrats, elected Democrats in Minnesota, to admit that we have a fraud problem of this scale, and to take accountability for those failings.”

The Department of Human Services maintained that the report remained heavily redacted to protect Optum’s trade secrets and prevent criminals from obtaining sensitive security details. Rasmusson attempted to introduce an amendment in April to make the full Optum report public, though it failed along party lines. However, a version of Rasmusson’s proposal later became part of a broader budget package in May.

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Under current law, DHS must provide initial Optum reports to members of a legislative committee, upon a joint request from both the chair and the ranking minority member. Lawmakers can review the report but cannot release protected nonpublic information. Rasmusson requested the full report in June. State Rep. Mohamud Noor, DFL, co-chair of the Human Services Finance and Policy Committee, and former GOP House co-chair Joe Schomacker requested the report in May. The report became available to select lawmakers only last week.

Republican state Rep. Dawn Gillman expressed disappointment, saying, “I’m grateful that it’s out, but it’s very disappointing we couldn’t have returned to St. Paul to address it. Lawmakers will have to wait until January to address the report.”

Rasmusson criticized the lack of access to detailed information, emphasizing that both the Walz administration and legislative Democrats could have reviewed this information months ago.

State Senator John Hoffman, DFL, who now has access to the report, contradicted the urgency of full access. He emphasized, “This is a report about vulnerabilities in public programs. Why would we release that to the public before we fixed them? We wouldn’t publish a report about which banks don’t lock their doors, either.” Hoffman added that the current legislative efforts already address gaps mentioned in the report.

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However, Rasmusson, after reviewing the unredacted report, concluded that it highlights systemic failures in the Walz administration and Minnesota Democrats regarding program integrity. He remarked, “Whether it is issues with determining the eligibility of program recipients, determining whether providers are actually providing real services or not, or even some of the basic analytics that would catch fraud, Minnesota is very far behind where it should be in program integrity initiatives.”

Fox News Digital reached out to the Department of Human Services, with Commissioner John Connolly confirming that select lawmakers now possess the report. “In alignment with the law passed by the Legislature last session, the Minnesota Department of Human Services released the Optum reports last week,” Connolly stated.

Fox News Digital contacted Walz’s office for comment. Elaine Mallon reports for Fox News Digital and Fox Business, focusing on national politics.