MN House HHS Policy Chairman Schomacker Statement

State Representative Joe Schomacker (R-Luverne), chairman of the Minnesota House Health and Human Services Policy Committee, issued the following statement after learning a Legislative Auditor’s investigation discovered fraud among childless adults who are illegally collecting Medical Assistance benefits:

"This latest non-partisan report shows hundreds of millions of your hard-earned tax dollars being improperly spent on our public welfare programs. The Department of Human Services' continued unwillingness, or inability, to implement fraud prevention efforts that are required under state law is an affront to all Minnesota taxpayers. DHS should be held accountable for the hundreds of millions of dollars it has now wasted as a result of its delays to install this needed periodic data matching computer software."

"House Republicans will continue our efforts to prevent waste, fraud, and abuse of our public programs, and push the Walz administration to give this issue the attention it deserves. Taxpayers deserve better."

Schomacker noted the legislative audit found a six percent error rate on $1.8 billion in spending on Medial Assistance for childless adults. Most of the errors occurred because the recipient failed to update personal information, such as income and change of residence. Schomacker said this type of information would have been flagged by the periodic data matching software that DHS is required by law to have installed, but to date has not been implemented.