Minneapolis Star Tribune. June 17, 2024.
Editorial: Tighten state oversight to prevent fraud
State departments need to get the basics down, as Feeding Our Future and front-line worker audits show.
When it comes to doling out state and federal funds, proper oversight is a continuing problem for some Minnesota agencies. Recent reports from the nonpartisan Office of the Legislative Auditor (OLA) indicate that agencies failed to fully scrutinize some of the programs for which they approved payments.
The Minnesota Department of Education’s (MDE) inadequate oversight of Feeding Our Future “created opportunities for fraud,” the OLA reported late last week. Earlier in the week, separate report found that the Minnesota Frontline Worker Pay Program had distributed funds to individuals who were not eligible for the payments.
The studies do not suggest that there was purposeful or intentional fraudulent mismanagement on the part of state employees. It continues to be important for state agencies to work with community partners to disperse federal and state dollars because the state doesn’t have the capacity to be the providers for numerous social-services funds.
Yet is it clear from the audits that more must be done tighten oversight and close down those “opportunities” to commit fraud. As Legislative Auditor Judy Randall told a legislative committee last week, the OLA found that “time and time again … MDE missed opportunities to hold Feeding Our Future accountable.”
Taxpayers expect and deserve state agencies to properly manage public funds.
The study of Feeding Our Future and another nonprofit, Partners in Nutrition, was released just a few days after a jury convicted five of seven defendants in the first trial against those who worked with the nonprofit. Seventy people charged so far are accused in connection with the theft of an estimated $250 million from a federal meal program. Following an FBI investigation, prosecutors say defendants turned in phony invoices on the numbers of children served and instead spent the money on homes, cars and trips.
In addition to the OLA study, a 2022 Star Tribune review of federal audits found that MDE was repeatedly faulted for its management of meal programs before the pandemic and that there were broader federal concerns about the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s sloppy oversight of the programs.
MDE should follow the auditor recommendations that include revising complaint investigation procedures, tightening verification criteria and doing follow-up reviews.
Commissioner Willie Jett, who has led MDE since 2023, told lawmakers that the department will implement OLA recommendations and that it has already strengthened its oversight, started fraud training for employees, contracted with a firm to conduct financial reviews of food programs and added an inspector general to investigate fraud allegations.
Also last week, the OLA released similar criticisms of the state Department of Labor and Industry’s handling of the Minnesota Frontline Worker Pay Program that distributed funds to front-line workers during the pandemic. That auditor evaluation shows that the Labor Department failed to verify hours and in-person work requirements to be eligible for payment and instead relied on self-reported work details.
As a result, some payments went to people who were not eligible and to others whose eligibility could not be confirmed. The study also found some blatantly fraudulent payments, including to people who used the names of individuals who had died before applications could be submitted.
In late April, the auditor found that the Department of Human Services’ Behavioral Health Division (BHD) failed to comply with some grants management rules, “including the requirement to obtain and maintain conflict-of-interest forms from grant application reviewers.” The OLA had a similar finding for this division in a 2021 audit.
In addition, neither the BHD nor the Minnesota State Arts Board (MSAB) completed all required pre-award risk assessments for grant awards. The recommendations in that case call on those agencies to follow their own grant-management policies.
On the payment program, Senate Taxes Committee Chair Ann Rest, DFL-New Hope, told the Star Tribune that she is frustrated by the fact that taxpayers ultimately had to foot the bill for some fraud.
“Something was let slip through that should have been an easy enough thing to do as brushing your teeth in the morning,” Rest said. “We were in times of turmoil but that does not excuse our carelessness with regard to the burden we are placing on the taxpayer.”
___
Mankato Free Press. June 16, 2024.
Editorial: Aging: Long-term care challenges growing
A few decades ago, experts predicted the “silver tsunami” of an aging U.S. population that was going to need enormous resources for their long term care. The silver tsunami is not only here, it appears to be coming in tidal wave after tidal wave.
An in-depth Free Press series published in May showed a number of critical circumstances creating a near crisis in caring for the aging population: The care workforce is in short supply, care facilities are at capacity or under staffed and there’s plenty of financial risk, if not financial disaster, to families looking to care for their loved ones.
Even long-term care insurance can be a difficult and expensive solution. A recent report in the Star Tribune showed long-term care insurers on the ropes in Minnesota, with many under financial strain and unable to offer affordable policies or any at all.
All solutions are expensive. The state of Minnesota put $300 million into the state’s nursing homes last year and still some are failing or unable to maintain operation because they cannot get workers.
The series showed that while half of the aging population will need some form of long-term care, only a small percentage are planning for it.
Demand for long-term care workers is expected to increase by about 42% in the next decade. The Bureau of Labor Statistics says the number of home health care workers and personal car attendants will increase by 800,000 in the next 10 years, but it won’t be enough. That’s in part because wages are low at about $33,000 a year.
Most people don’t know that Medicare does not pay for long-term care, only some short-term care. So Medicaid is the program of last resort when people have depleted their savings. Medicaid covers about 50% of the $400 billion in long-term care costs in the U.S. annually, according to the Kaiser Family Foundation.
Caring for a loved one can be financially devastating to families. Paying $100,000 a year for nursing home care depletes family resources quickly and federal law requires families or nursing home residents to spend down their assets to as little as $2,000, not including their home, to qualify for Medicaid.
Experts like Howard Bedlin, a long-term care expert with the National Council on Aging, see trouble on the horizon.
“With baby boomers getting older, the need for long-term care services will only be getting greater,” Bedlin said. “So we’ve got a real crisis on our hands.”
Congress has done little, if anything, to address the problem, although at least one state, Washington, has imposed a 0.58% payroll tax to help cover long-term care costs of its residents.
The problem will not get easier to solve. It seems some “public good” policy would be in order to help families pay these costs or at least provide informational and other resources to help families deal with the care of their loved ones.
END