Minnesota Republicans Accuse Democrats of Hiding Medicaid Fraud Report

Minnesota Republicans are accusing Democrats of keeping lawmakers in the dark for months about a state-commissioned Medicaid assessment that flagged more than $52 million in improper payments. They argue the delay denied them a chance to act on the report’s specific findings during the legislative session before the election.

Minnesota Republican Speaker of the House Lisa Demuth told Fox News Digital that fraud has exploded under the Walz administration. She questioned why the report was hidden and called for transparency.

The Walz administration hired Optum to conduct a third-party review of Minnesota’s Medicaid program, scrutinizing 14 high-risk services. The report identified more than $52 million in improper payments but cautioned that improper payments do not necessarily constitute “fraud, waste or abuse.”

The Department of Human Services released a heavily redacted version to the public in February, prompting calls from Republican lawmakers to make the full version available so they could address the risks raised during the legislative session.

Minnesota currently has a divided state legislature, with the Democratic-Farmer-Labor Party (DFL) holding a slim 34-33 majority in the Senate and a rare 67-67 partisan tie in the House.

Walz Administration Hired Optum for Medicaid Audit

Democratic Gov. Tim Walz announced the audit in October 2025, months before allegations of widespread fraud involving members of Minnesota’s Somali diaspora drew national attention. Mounting scrutiny of the Walz administration’s handling of alleged fraud in Minnesota’s social services programs contributed to growing political pressure before Walz ended his re-election campaign in January.

Republican state Sen. Jordan Rasmusson is also accusing the Walz administration and his Democratic counterparts of seeking to “minimize” the fraud issue in the state. He said it’s hard for Democrats to admit to a fraud problem of this scale and take accountability for those failings.

The Department of Human Services said the report was heavily redacted to protect Optum’s trade secrets and prevent the release of sensitive security information that could provide criminals a “roadmap” for committing fraud.

Rasmusson introduced an amendment in April to make the full Optum report public, but it failed along party lines. A version of Rasmusson’s provision was later passed in May as part of a broader budget package.

Under the law, DHS must provide the initial Optum reports to members of a legislative committee with “jurisdiction over human services policy and finance” following a joint request from the committee’s chair and ranking minority member.

Lawmakers Received Report After Months of Delays

Rasmusson said he issued a request for 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 did not become available to a select group of lawmakers until last week.

“I’m grateful that it’s out, but it’s very disappointing we couldn’t have returned to St. Paul to address it,” Republican state Rep. Dawn Gillman told Fox News Digital, noting that lawmakers will have to wait until January to address the report.

“The broader takeaway is that the Walz administration could have given us more access to those months ago,” Rasmusson told Fox News Digital. “Legislative Democrats could have joined Republicans and got access to this information months ago during session.”

However, state Sen. John Hoffman, who now has access to the report, pushed back on the notion that lawmakers needed full access to enact meaningful changes. He said the report is about vulnerabilities in public programs and that it would be irresponsible to release it before they are fixed.

“This is a report about vulnerabilities in public programs,” Hoffman said in a statement to Fox News Digital. “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.”

Republicans Claim Systemic Failures in Walz Administration

Rasmusson, who also has the report, disagreed with Hoffman. He said the unredacted Optum report underscores the systemic failures of the Walz administration and Minnesota Democrats to protect Minnesota from fraud.

“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,” Rasmusson continued.

Fox News Digital reached out to DHS, which confirmed that select lawmakers now had the report. “We appreciate legislators’ interest in receiving a copy of the unredacted initial Optum report from February 2026,” Minnesota Department of Human Services Temporary Commissioner John Connolly said in a statement.

The report identified more than $52 million in improper payments but cautioned that improper payments do not necessarily constitute “fraud, waste or abuse.” The Department of Human Services released a heavily redacted version to the public in February, prompting calls from Republican lawmakers to make the full version available.

Minnesota currently has a divided state legislature, with the Democratic-Farmer-Labor Party (DFL) holding a slim 34-33 majority in the Senate and a rare 67-67 partisan tie in the House.

Walz Administration Faces Political Pressure Over Fraud Allegations

Mounting scrutiny of the Walz administration’s handling of alleged fraud in Minnesota’s social services programs contributed to growing political pressure before Walz ended his re-election campaign in January. The issue has become a focal point for Republicans, who accuse Democrats of hiding the Medicaid fraud report.