What audits or state reviews have quantified losses in Minnesota social‑service programs since 2018?
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Executive summary
Since 2018 Minnesota has been the subject of multiple audits and reviews into social‑service spending, most notably a state‑ordered third‑party audit covering 14 “high‑risk” Medicaid programs and a 2024 Office of Legislative Auditor examination of the Feeding Our Future scandal, while federal prosecutors and agencies have produced preliminary loss estimates — but no final, state‑certified total loss figure to date [1] [2] [3].
1. State‑ordered third‑party audit of 14 high‑risk programs
In October 2025 Governor Tim Walz ordered an independent, third‑party audit of billing for 14 Medicaid‑funded programs the Department of Human Services (DHS) had identified as “high risk,” and the state has paused payments to those programs while the audit proceeds; the programs under review have been billed at roughly $18 billion since 2018, a figure cited repeatedly by prosecutors and the state as the universe under scrutiny [1] [3] [4].
2. Office of Legislative Auditor review of Feeding Our Future
The Minnesota Office of the Legislative Auditor produced a 2024 report that concluded the Feeding Our Future child‑nutrition scandal reflected systemic oversight failures inside state agencies, finding officials had flagged irregularities early yet continued to approve payments — that OLA review is one of the few completed state examinations that documented process breakdowns and prior losses tied to that specific scheme [2].
3. Federal prosecutors’ preliminary quantified estimates and confirmed convictions
Federal prosecutors have offered the most dramatic numbers: First Assistant U.S. Attorney Joe Thompson has said providers across the 14 audited programs billed about $18 billion since 2018 and that “half or more” of that amount could be fraudulent, a preliminary estimate repeated by numerous news outlets but described by some outlets as not yet a finalized audit figure [3] [5] [2] [6]. Independently of that estimate, prosecutors have secured convictions and charges that together confirm hundreds of millions in proven losses tied to schemes such as Feeding Our Future and other Medicaid frauds [2].
4. State DHS operational audits and rolling claim reviews
Minnesota DHS has been actively sending claims to outside auditors in a rolling process — at one point sending roughly 80,000 claims for review and disenrolling hundreds of inactive providers while terminating at least one program (Housing Stabilization Services) because of widespread fraud — actions that constitute ongoing operational audits and administrative reviews rather than a single final loss accounting [7] [3].
5. Federal agency actions and congressional oversight reviews
Federal agencies have also pressed for reviews: the Department of Health and Human Services froze child‑care payments to Minnesota and demanded comprehensive audits of specific child‑care providers after viral allegations; the Small Business Administration paused grants and Congress’s House Oversight Committee announced planned hearings into fraud and misuse of federal funds in Minnesota’s social‑service programs, signaling parallel federal reviews that may produce further quantified findings [8] [9] [1] [10].
6. What has been quantified — and what remains unresolved
The concrete, state‑certified quantification of total taxpayer losses since 2018 has not yet been produced in a single, finalized audit available publicly; the 2024 OLA report quantified failures tied to Feeding Our Future and state administrative actions have produced counts of claims sent for review and providers suspended, while federal prosecutors’ preliminary estimate that “half or more” of $18 billion may be fraudulent provides a working figure used in coverage but is explicitly described as preliminary rather than a completed audit [2] [7] [3] [5]. Multiple outlets emphasize that while convictions confirm substantial, documented losses in specific schemes, a consolidated, auditable statewide total loss number has not been published by either the state auditor or federal investigators as of the reporting included here [2] [6].