Federal investigations have exposed rampant scams in Minnesota’s Medicaid program. Estimates suggest that $9 billion in Medicaid funds may have been lost to fraud since 2018. Consistent with these revelations, state Medicaid spending data shows that Minnesota is out of step with the rest of the country. We previously highlighted that Minnesota spends 51 percent more per Medicaid enrollee in the ACA expansion group than the US average. This Paragon Pic examines another category of Medicaid enrollees: people with disabilities. In 2023, Minnesota spent more per enrollee with disabilities than any other state – and 176 percent more than the US average. This pattern comports with the fact that many of the fraudulent schemes that have been uncovered in Minnesota targeted home- and community-based services that provide care to people with disabilities.
Liam Sigaud is an Adjunct Scholar at the Paragon Health Institute and a Research Analyst at the Knee Regulatory Research Center at West Virginia University.
