Just Another Day In Tim Walz’s Minnesota

Every day is an opportunity for some new kind of social services fraud.

Medicare?  Food? Childcare? 

Old hat!

Now it’s “Autism treatment centers“:

“I and other former employees witnessed some neglect regarding clients’ education needs and self-care. The clients’ goals aren’t being run by the behavioral therapist there,” she told DHS, which administers Minnesota’s version of Medicaid, known here as Medical Assistance, a federal-state health plan for poor and disabled people.

Smart Therapy did not respond to a request for comment. 

The state is investigating 15 autism providers, has already withheld payments to providers and forwarded five to Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison. Although the identities of the centers are unknown, an immigrant autism provider complained that DHS discriminates against minority providers.

The autism investigation comes close on the heels of the Feeding Our Future scandal, which is believed to be the biggest pandemic relief fraud in the nation and has underscored state government’s failure to stop program fraud in recent years. 

 

Autism centers are – this beggars the imagination – not licensed in Minnesota, a state that requires a license to braid hair.  But unlike hair braiding (as far as I know), there’s a ton of government money going into “Autism Treatment” and, well, we know how that ends up in Tim Walz’s Minnesota, don’t we?