Minnesota’s most vulnerable citizens are collateral damage in federal crackdown on Medicaid program

WASHINGTON – The state’s attempts to address allegations of fraud has created financial turbulence for thousands of Medicaid providers in Minnesota, some of whom have had to dig into savings or take out loans to keep their companies going.

But the people who depend on the programs — low-income seniors and disabled Minnesotans, autistic children and people in dire need of mental health and other services — are the overlooked casualties of the Minnesota Department of Human Service’s war on fraud.

Just as the providers are undergoing new scrutiny, so are the people who need their services. Some have lost those services and others face long wait times to get the help they need because of the auditing of the system. 

Others are anxious they will lose a favored provider as some have decided that they can’t make ends meet because payments have been delayed. And there’s the specter of  the state&nbs...