A whistleblower, who tried to call attention to fraud in Minnesota, joined Liz Collin on her podcast. She still works in county government and asked that we protect her identity for the interview, so we called her Susan.
WATCH:
Susan spoke out on Minnesota’s Housing Stabilization Services (HSS) fraud, a program funded by Medicaid and administered by the Minnesota Department of Human Services. The program was officially shut down on Oct. 31.
“What I witnessed firsthand, there were a lot of red flags,” she said.
“I would go out to my client’s homes … and the so-called provider for the service would say, ‘We will see you weekly. We will be emailing weekly. We will be looking for housing together weekly,'” Susan explained.
However, she pointed out that “as soon as we’d signed the contracts and they would leave, we would never hear from them again.”
“And then I would say two months later, we would find out that that person is gone or this place is gone. They’re no longer there. Meanwhile, the whole few months, there were zero services provided. Then we’d start the process all over again with a new person coming out,” she added.
“It’s always someone in their 20s, probably a very entry-level position when we have to sign new contracts … and they would give us the same identical speech. ‘You know, we’ll see you weekly. We’ll be looking for housing weekly. You’ll get weekly reports, weekly emails, lots of contact,'” Susan explained.
And then “no contact—ghosted. This cycle went on for a period of two to three years and there were absolutely zero services provided whatsoever,” she added.
HSS clients are the real victims
Susan also spoke with Collin about how clients are the real victims.
“These clients are some of the most vulnerable people that we have. They are the homeless, they are the mentally ill, they are developmentally delayed, they are physically handicapped,” Susan said.
She also pointed out how “they can’t advocate for themselves, they can’t even, they don’t even understand most of the paperwork. They don’t know what’s going on, they don’t know who’s coming, who’s going.”
Making matters even worse, and speaking from first-hand experience, Susan explained how “it’s crushing for them and some of these clients do have to sometimes pay for this. Yes, sometimes the county or Medicaid will pick it up, but not always. And they’re not getting the services.”
“I work with this one particular client and I go into this particular client’s home weekly. And every time I talk to her … her words and it’s heartbreaking because she always starts to cry and she has cognitive declines and disabilities. For these people, they’re at a huge disadvantage,” Susan said.
She also revealed how she reported this and other instances of likely fraud to her supervisors several times.
Trying to blow the whistle, while the fraud continues
Susan said that she was never sure if anything happened after providing her reports—and whether they were passed on to government officials or law enforcement.
However, she also said, “I know we were all reporting at all levels, all of us, and we had several meetings discussing how we felt something very fraudulent was going on.”
“Clinical directors, supervisors, county workers, mental health workers, we were all reporting,” she said.
“I have seen like eight in-home support workers or homemakers do fraudulent activities, like have burner phones maybe left at the client’s home and kind of tricking the client to kind of clock in or clock out and no one really is watching anybody closely enough to see what’s going on.”
This has a direct effect on clients, Susan said: “What they tell me is that ‘I don’t want my staff to get mad at me, so I need to keep their secrets.’ They get nervous and they think, ‘Well, I do need to lie because I don’t want this person mad at me,'” Susan said.
In trying to report the fraud, Susan believes, “absolutely it’s been allowed to happen. Yes, of course, absolutely,” she said.
Keep up with the latest on fraud: Fraud in Minnesota.
Liz Collin
Liz Collin is a multi-Emmy-Award-winning investigative reporter, news anchor, and producer who cares about Minnesota. She is the producer of The Fall of Minneapolis and Minnesota v We the People documentary films, and author of the Amazon best-selling book, They’re Lying: The Media, the Left, and The Death of George Floyd. Her work has prompted important state laws. Yet perhaps most of all, Liz has been giving a voice to the truth—and helping others tell their stories—for more than 20 years.
Dr. JC Chaix
Dr. JC Chaix is an editor, educator, and an expert in media studies. He wrote and directed the Alpha News documentary "The Fall of Minneapolis" and "Minnesota v We the People."
