Minnesota Republicans accuse Walz administration of delaying release of $52M Medicaid improper-payments report
The Minnesota Department of Human Services released an unredacted Optum report to a select group of lawmakers last week, after a heavily redacted version was made public in February. The report, commissioned by the Walz administration in October 2025, identified more than $52 million in improper Medicaid payments across 14 high-risk services. The report itself noted that improper payments do not necessarily constitute fraud, waste, or abuse.
Single source · Not corroborated
The Walz administration hired the consulting firm Optum to conduct a third-party review of Minnesota's Medicaid program, scrutinizing 14 high-risk service areas. A redacted version of the resulting report was released publicly in February 2026; the full, unredacted version became available to a select group of legislators only last week, months after Republican lawmakers first began requesting it.
Republican state Sen. Jordan Rasmusson said he submitted a request for the full report in June. State Rep. Mohamud Noor, the DFL co-chair of the Human Services Finance and Policy Committee, and former GOP House co-Chair Joe Schomacker had requested the report in May. An amendment introduced by Rasmusson in April to make the full report public failed along party lines; a version of that provision later passed in May as part of a broader budget package.
Minnesota Republican House Speaker Lisa Demuth, who is also the GOP gubernatorial candidate, told Fox News Digital that the delay prevented lawmakers from acting on the report's findings during the legislative session. "The broader takeaway is that the Walz administration could have given us more access to those months ago," Rasmusson said. Republican state Rep. Dawn Gillman said lawmakers will now have to wait until January to address the report.