Minnesota Republicans Accuse Walz Administration of Withholding Medicaid Fraud Report

Minnesota Republicans are accusing the administration of Gov. Tim Walz of intentionally withholding a state-commissioned report that identified over $52 million in improper Medicaid payments, alleging the delay prevented lawmakers from addressing the findings before the upcoming election.

"Fraud here has exploded under the Walz administration," said Minnesota Republican Speaker of the House Lisa Demuth. "Governor Walz has held no one in his entire administration accountable for the level of fraud. It definitely brings into question what is in that report and why are they hiding it?"

The report, conducted by Optum, examined 14 high-risk services within Minnesota's Medicaid program. While it flagged $52.3 million in improper payments, it also noted that these do not necessarily equate to fraud, waste, or abuse. The Department of Human Services (DHS) released a heavily redacted version in February, which Republican lawmakers argued was insufficient, urging access to the full document.

"Our election here in Minnesota is 29 days away. We’re just four weeks out, and you really have to wonder why they are refusing to do this," Demuth stated.

Minnesota currently operates under a divided legislature, with Democrats holding a narrow majority in the Senate and a tie in the House.

Democratic Gov. Tim Walz had announced the audit in October 2025, preceding national attention on alleged fraud within Minnesota's social services programs. Republican state Sen. Jordan Rasmusson echoed Demuth's concerns, asserting that the Walz administration and legislative Democrats have sought to "minimize" the state's fraud issues.

"I think it’s really hard for Democrats, elected Democrats in Minnesota, to admit that we have a fraud problem of this scale, and to take accountability for those failings," Rasmusson told Fox News Digital.

The DHS stated that the report was heavily redacted to protect Optum's trade secrets and sensitive security information that could aid criminals. Rasmusson's attempt to make the full report public via an amendment in April failed along party lines, though a similar provision was later passed in May as part of a larger budget package.

According to the law, DHS must provide Optum reports to legislative committees with jurisdiction over human services policy and finance upon a joint request from the committee's chair and ranking minority member. Lawmakers may review the report but are prohibited from releasing protected nonpublic information.

Rasmusson submitted a request for the full report in June, while State Rep. Mohamud Noor, DFL, and former GOP House co-chair Joe Schomacker had requested it in May. The report was not made available to a select group of lawmakers until the previous week.

"I'm grateful that it's out, but it's very disappointing we couldn’t have returned to St. Paul to address it," said Republican state Rep. Dawn Gillman, noting that legislative action would now be delayed until January.

State Sen. John Hoffman, DFL, who now has access to the report, contested the notion that full public access was necessary for legislative action. "This is a report about vulnerabilities in public programs," Hoffman said. "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."

Hoffman added that the issues raised in the report had already been addressed through legislation passed earlier in the year. However, Rasmusson, who also reviewed the unredacted report, disagreed.

"After reviewing the unredacted Optum report, my main takeaway is that it underscores the systemic failures of the Walz administration and Minnesota Democrats to protect Minnesota from fraud," Rasmusson stated. "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."

The DHS confirmed that select lawmakers had received the report, with Temporary Commissioner John Connolly stating, "In alignment with the law passed by the Legislature last session, the Minnesota Department of Human Services released the Optum reports last week."