It seems in Minnesota, there are those who are out make money off of a crisis. In the midst of this, how many needy children aren’t getting services?
TAKING ADVANTAGE OF THE VICTIMS
Several months ago, it was revealed that the FBI was investigating how unscrupulous service providers were exploiting the taxpayers of Minnesota by offering phony autism therapy.
June 18, 2024, The Minnesota Reformer: FBI investigates Minnesota autism centers, which have exploded in growth since 2018
DHS studying whether it should begin licensing autism facilities
The FBI is investigating possible Medicaid fraud in the treatment of autism in Minnesota, according to sources with knowledge of the investigation and who were granted anonymity because they’re not authorized to speak to the media.
Details of the investigation are unknown, but what’s certain is that growth of spending on the autism program has exploded in recent years. The number of providers — who diagnose and treat people with autism spectrum disorder — has increased 700% in the past five years, climbing from 41 providers in 2018 to 328 last year.
The amount paid to providers during that time has increased 3,000%, from about $6 million to nearly $192 million — according to data provided to the Reformer by the Minnesota Department of Human Services, which administers Minnesota’s Medicaid health insurance program for low-income people and people with disabilities. . . .
Autism affects one out of every 34 Minnesota children aged 8, according to a 2020 review by the Minnesota Autism and Developmental Disabilities Monitoring Network, one of 12 Centers for Disease Control and Prevention sites in the U.S. that studies the prevalence of autism. Minnesota’s rate is slightly higher than the national average. . . .
DHS’s Office of Inspector General has the authority to investigate suspected fraud and stop providers’ ability to bill. Fraud findings can be forwarded to the attorney general’s Medicaid fraud unit.
The OIG has withheld payments to seven providers since 2018: five due to credible fraud allegations, one because a provider refused to give DHS access to records, and one to protect the public welfare and Minnesota Health Care Programs, according to DHS spokesman Scott Peterson. Medicaid Provider Audits and Investigations referred five Minnesota providers to the Medicaid Fraud Control Unit.
Eric Larsson is president of the Association for Science in Autism Treatment, an adjunct assistant psychology professor at the University of Minnesota and executive director of clinical services for Lovaas Institute Midwest, which provides autism services to children in their homes and community. Larsson, who is also president of the Autism Treatment Association of Minnesota, said after years of lobbying, Minnesota finally put an autism program in place in 2013, but it didn’t really get up and running until about 2018.
The state has filed a complaint with the Behavior Analyst Certification Board about providers with high caseloads failing to provide quality services. Lovaas’ average caseload is 3.5 children per board-certified clinician.
“I’m serving 42 kids and we have 20 certified behavioral analysts, but another center could be serving 100,” Larsson said.
A woman who works for an insurance company that administers Medical Assistance — granted anonymity because she’s not authorized by her company to speak to the media — said there’s widespread concern that the autism program is riddled with fraud.
“We all talk about it,” she said.
Unlike the nonexistent meals that were the vehicle for the Feeding Our Future fraud, she said children are actually going to the autism centers, but, “A lot of them we feel are just daycare centers,” she said. “I think that people that own the daycare are saying they’re autistic when they’re not.”
If the allegation is true, providers would be reaping the high reimbursement of autism services without the need to provide the expensive services associated with it.
A child can get up to 40 hours of services a week — such as speech therapy — depending on their individual treatment plan. . . .
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The people who need the investigation are the fraudsters who make the autism juice mandatory in the first place. It's become an industry. I look forward to the sweeping changes to our government health agencies if Trump gets elected. Robert F. Kennedy Jr. has detailed many of these ideas.