Friends and neighbors,
Late last year, in an effort to appear like he is taking action on fraud, Gov. Walz hired a consulting firm called Optum to dig through $9.4 billion in Medicaid claims across 14 programs considered high-risk for fraud. The report came back showing that better policies and safeguards could have saved more than $1 billion over the past four years. Shocking, I know.
But when the report was released, Gov. Walz had huge chunks of it blacked out. And not just a few sensitive details. Entire sections. Looking at it conjures up images of what a top-secret NSA file might look like.
The Department of Human Services is invoking state data privacy law to justify the redactions. I find that argument unconvincing. Legislative audit reports, which also look at system vulnerabilities and make policy recommendations, are already available to the public. The governor’s administration is doing the same work but trying to keep it secret.
You paid for this report, and you deserve to know what's in it. The House passed a bill by a wide margin (107-27) to at least give legislators access to the full version. That’s a start. It now heads to the Senate. I'm pushing for public release.
Thank you!
As always, it is a privilege to serve you. If you have any questions or want to share your thoughts about what is happening at the Capitol, please reach out any time!
Sincerely,