Millions Were Allegedly Stolen From Autistic Children Through Medicaid Fraud. Now the Providers Who Treat Them Are Cheering the Crackdown.
Applied Behavior Analysis therapy is supposed to help autistic children build the basics — communication, self-regulation, independence. Nationally, Medicaid and CHIP spending on it grew 421% between 2021 and 2025, from $1,940,000,000 to $10,100,000,000, while the number of children actually diagnosed grew only 67% — a gap federal regulators call impossible to explain with legitimate need alone.
On May 21, 2026, the Trump administration answered that gap with what HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. called “the largest autism fraud bust in American history” — 15 people charged in Minnesota for stealing more than $90,000,000 from Medicaid and social-service programs meant for autistic children and disabled adults.
What’s unusual is who’s applauding. Fox News reported this week that the autism-care industry itself — clinicians, behavioral therapists, and the families who depend on them — is publicly backing the crackdown, even while warning that a blunt federal response could interrupt care for the children it’s supposed to protect.
- $90,000,000+ stolen from Minnesota Medicaid and social-service programs across 15 defendants charged in one takedown — DOJ, May 21, 2026
- $46,600,000 fraudulently billed by two Minneapolis-area providers for autism therapy never rendered — DOJ's largest Medicaid autism fraud case ever charged — Dept. of Justice
- 421% growth in national Medicaid/CHIP spending on autism therapy, 2021–2025 — six times the 67% growth in children actually diagnosed — CMS ABA Toolkit, Aug. 4, 2026
- $6,500,000,000+ in alleged fraud tied to 455 defendants nationwide in DOJ's June 2026 National Health Care Fraud Takedown — Dept. of Justice
- $867,500,000 / $199,000,000 Medicaid funding CMS paused to California and Minnesota respectively over fraud-documentation concerns — CMS, July 22, 2026
The pattern shows up in the billing records, not just the headlines. In New Jersey, according to a case detailed by the American Accountability Foundation, a Medicaid claim charged $30,500 for a single day of care for a child named Ezekiel — a day in which, records show, a behavior technician actually spent 70 minutes with him working on a puzzle and playing with toys. In Florida, one father described being billed $10,000 for a single service date and put it bluntly: “If I wanted a babysitter for $10,000 a pop, I would have found me one.”
Those aren’t isolated stories. HHS’s Office of Inspector General has already tied nearly $197,900,000 in improper autism-therapy payments to just four states audited so far — Indiana, Wisconsin, Colorado, and Maine — a pattern Civic Intelligence covered in an earlier story. Trump administration CMS Administrator Dr. Mehmet Oz released a 173-page toolkit for states on August 4, 2026 to address the growth directly, writing that “every dollar lost to fraud or waste is a dollar that cannot reach a child who genuinely needs it,” and that families “deserve confidence that ABA services are clinically appropriate, personalized, and delivered by qualified providers.”
The centerpiece of the May 21 takedown is an alleged $46,600,000 scheme run through two clinics — Smart Therapy in Minneapolis and Star Autism Center in St. Cloud. Prosecutors say Shamso Ahmed Hassan, 55, and Hanaan Mursal Yusuf, 25, paid parents $300 to $1,500 per child to enroll them in Minnesota’s Early Intensive Developmental and Behavioral Intervention program, billed for therapy from staff who no longer worked at the clinics — or never had — and collected roughly $21,200,000 of the amount claimed before investigators caught up. Prosecutors allege some of that money bought luxury vehicles, Rolex watches, and jewelry, and moved overseas to Kenya. Hassan and Yusuf are charged, not convicted, and are presumed innocent.
Federal prosecutors say Hassan is married to Asha Farhan Hassan, who pleaded guilty in 2025 to a separate $14,000,000 scheme run through a business with a similar name — the same family name showing up again at a much larger dollar figure a year later. Colin McDonald, Assistant Attorney General for DOJ’s National Fraud Enforcement Division, did not mince words at the announcement: “These defendants treated Minnesota-run programs as their personal piggy bank,” he said. “The fraud here in Minnesota is shocking… this is just the beginning.”
“These criminals exploited vulnerable children as billing opportunities.”
Robert F. Kennedy Jr. · HHS Secretary, announcing the Minnesota charges, May 21, 2026
President Trump (R) had flagged Minnesota’s autism spending months before the arrests. On February 27, 2026, he posted on Truth Social that state autism payments had grown at a rate he called impossible to justify and demanded an investigation.
Minnesota Autism Payments have gone from $1,099,946 in 2017, to $343,176,474 in 2024, an increase of 34,000% in just a few years. Steve Miller, Russ Vought, Dr. Oz, Pam Bondi - This is a GIANT SCAM. Investigate and Arrest these CROOKS, NOW. [...] California is worse!!! BALANCE BUDGET! Thank you to "Gutfeld." President DJT
Verified verbatim against the public Truth Social archive. Trump's own figures are his; Sen. John Kennedy (R-La.) separately tallied Minnesota's autism-program growth at 50,988%, from $670,000 in 2019 to $342.8 million in 2024, in a June 18, 2026 National Review op-ed — a related but distinct measurement.
Dr. Oz didn’t stop at Minnesota. In February he warned Maine it was showing “all the same red flags” after HHS investigators found $45,000,000 in improper payments to that state’s autism program.
You've probably heard about Minnesota's fraud problems. Maine also needs to clean up its act. Last month, HHS investigators released a report that identified at least $45 million in improper payments to the state's Medicaid-funded treatment program for children with autism. Somali fraudsters in Minnesota stole millions from a similar program, and we're seeing all the same red flags in Maine: rapid growth in payouts (over 50% in just four years), treatment centers clustering in small geographic areas, insufficient documentation of diagnoses, and lack of state oversight.
The Minnesota case landed inside a much larger federal push. On June 23, 2026, DOJ announced its 2026 National Health Care Fraud Takedown — 455 defendants charged nationwide, including 90 licensed medical professionals, over more than $6,500,000,000 in alleged fraud across Medicare, Medicaid, and private insurers, with 37 behavioral-health cases alone accounting for roughly $220,000,000 to $250,000,000 of it. On July 22, CMS paused $867,500,000 in Medicaid payments to California and $199,000,000 to Minnesota until the states could document their claims. Governor Gavin Newsom (D-CA) called it political: “We are being targeted for political reasons.” Governor Tim Walz (D-MN) made a different argument: “They’re cutting more money in healthcare than they’ve prosecuted for fraud. The math doesn’t add up.”
That’s the tension the Fox News story captured this week: an industry that has every reason to fear a federal crackdown is asking for one anyway. Taylor Sanders, a family advocate at the Autism Families Alliance, told Fox News Digital, “President Trump and the administration are right: fraud is unacceptable and those responsible should be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law” — while adding that “there’s real concern among the families I work with that their children’s care could be interrupted because of the government’s response to these criminals.”
Kelsey Bennett, a practicing clinician with the same organization, put the stakes plainly: “Fraud harms taxpayers, undermines trust in the healthcare system, damages the reputation of legitimate providers, and, most importantly, puts vulnerable children at risk.” In Charlotte, North Carolina, Rocio Berni described what real ABA therapy did for her son, Manny: “I simply can’t imagine what his life would be like without this care.” Dr. Oz told Fox News the department sees providers like her son’s as partners, not targets: “The good news is, our biggest allies are the folks who are doing it right… those people come to us actually frustrated, angry that we’re allowing, tolerating fraudsters.”
Medicaid autism spending grew 421% in four years while diagnoses grew 67% — and in Minnesota, federal prosecutors say two clinic operators turned that gap into a $46,600,000 personal piggy bank while a state led by Governor Tim Walz (D) collected the bills. The providers and families who show up every day for real therapy are the ones now demanding Washington finish the job, even as California and Minnesota fight the funding freezes that came with it. Accountability and access don’t have to be opposites here — but somebody has to find the money first, and so far it’s DOJ, not Sacramento or St. Paul, doing the finding.
