The governor has worked for years to crack down on fraud and ask the state legislature for more authority to take aggressive action. He has strengthened oversight including launching investigations into these specific facilities, one of which was already closed. They added that Walz has hired an outside firm to audit payments to high-risk programs, shut down the Housing Stabilization Services program entirely, announced a new statewide program integrity director, and supported criminal prosecutions.
CMS announced the start of the "Crushing Fraud Chili Cook-Off Competition" on Aug. 19, calling it "a market-based research challenge" to identify emerging technologies that can "detect anomalies and trends in Medicare Fee-for-Service (FFS) claims data that can be translated into novel indicators of fraud." The agency said it is "prioritizing the use of innovative, data-driven approaches, including explainable AI/ML" that can analyze large datasets to "uncover unusual patterns, anomalies, or trends that may signal fraudulent activity."