Minnesota is handing healthcare fraud cases off to federal investigators amid a surge in criminal referrals overwhelming state oversight officials.The heads of various Minnesota agencies tasked with tackling fraud are turning to the federal government to take the reins on a wave of new fraud reports piling up in the state’s social services programs.Nick Wanka, director of the Medicaid Fraud Control Unit in Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison’s office, said his staff is “drowning in referrals.”
Wanka told the Minnesota Star Tribune that they will rely heavily on federal law enforcement to lead the investigative efforts, while state prosecutors serve in an ancillary support role, providing “some data analysis or other secondary help.”
“It’s a volume issue,” James Clark, inspector general of the Minnesota Department of Human Services, told the Minnesota Star Tribune.
Clark said it may otherwise take years to sift through the growing backlog of fraud referrals, from the time a tip comes in to when charges are actually filed against alleged fraudsters.
According to Minnesota DHS data, the state agency referred 265 cases of Medicaid fraud for criminal prosecution in 2025, more than triple the previous year’s referrals.
