Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz on Thursday introduced a large anti-fraud legislative package aimed at strengthening the state’s ability to prevent, detect, and prosecute fraud in public programs, one day after the Trump administration announced it would temporarily defer $259 million in federal Medicaid payments to the state.
The package includes the creation of a centralized Office of Inspector General, expanded authority for the Bureau of Criminal Apprehension’s (BCA) Financial Crimes and Fraud Unit, a new Theft of Public Funds criminal statute that increases penalties by 20 percent, and the deployment of predictive analytics and machine learning to flag suspicious billing.
