I did a little bit of citizen-journalist-style research into the ballooning autism-clinic scandal this weekend. The results were eye-opening.
Just before Christmas, the U.S. Attorney for Minnesota announced two more indictments in the autism fraud. This scandal involves a Medicaid program, the Early Intensive Developmental and Behavioral intervention benefit (EIDBI). The program began in Minnesota in 2018. The autism clinic scandal has the potential to be the largest single fraud in state history.
The FBI charts the program’s rapid growth in this table included in a recent federal search warrant,
As you can see above, the program has paid out over $1 billion (with a “b”). The FBI notes that the program has some 482 providers serving a participant base of just under 6,000 children. Taxpayer money is paid out directly to providers through state government and indirectly through insurance companies.
In my citizen-journalism exercise, I dug into a group of providers paid directly by the state Department of Human Services (DHS). I searched this state-maintained database for DHS vendors featuring the word “autism” in their corporate name for Fiscal Year 2025, the last full year completed. (Please note that fiscal years and calendar years do not align).
52 such names appear for FY25, and I was able to match 51 of these names to known corporate entities registered in Minnesota. These 51 entities received almost $39 million in FY 25.
Obviously, having “autism” in your name is not a requirement for program participation. But by using this screen I was able to identify more than 10 percent of total number of vendors (51 of 482) and more than 11 percent of total program annual spending ($39 million of $343 million [calendar year 2024]). I put forward my sample as being representative of the whole.
I then dug into the ownership/management of the 51 providers in my sample, looking for the names of individuals using public corporate databases. Of the 51 vendors, 42 appear to be operated by persons of Somali/East African ethnicity, based on the individuals’ names. That works out to more than 82 percent of my 51-company sample.
These 42 corporate entities took in more than $26 million in FY25 of the $39 million I tracked in my 51-company sample. The exact percentage works out to over two-thirds of the total, more than 67 percent.
Please note that I am not accusing any of these 42 companies of committing any wrongdoing. In fact, the companies involved in the most recent federal indictments are not in the sample.
Also, it stands to reason that companies run by persons of Somali ancestry may serve persons of other ancestries, and vice versa.
Assuming that my sample is representative, I find it curious that some 67 percent of program dollars and more than 80 percent of program participation is accounted for by companies within a community that comprises between one and two percent of the state’s population.
Even if, by some amazingly unlikely statistical fluke, I managed to catalog all of the Somali-owned autism clinics in the state, payouts to these 42 entities alone represent almost 8 percent of total annual program spending.
Imagine, if you can, the uproar that would follow a revelation that two-thirds of the spending from a $1 billion taxpayer-funded program went to persons of Eastern European ancestry. At a minimum, it would call into question the program’s intent, design and marketing.
Here is my sample, removing any identifying information,
