On May 4, Governor Tim Walz announced the appointment of John Connolly to serve as temporary commissioner of the Minnesota Department of Human Services. It's part of a restructuring of leadership to ensure stability and continue to strengthen oversight, improve program delivery, and protect essential services for Minnesotans as the Trump Administration threatens billions meant for Minnesota’s Medicaid program.
“We’ve made significant progress to strengthen programs and root out fraud," said Governor Walz. "Today, we’re building on our success by putting an even stronger structure in place; adding leadership, improving oversight, and ensuring these programs are managed with the discipline and accountability Minnesotans expect. That’s how we protect care and deliver for families.”
Under the new structure, Connolly will serve as the temporary commissioner. Connolly asked Shireen Gandhi to remain at DHS as deputy commissioner to oversee Medicaid programming for the immediate future, continuing to focus on safeguarding and strengthening Minnesota’s Medicaid program during a period of federal instability. Connolly also appointed DHS General Counsel Andrew Johnson as deputy commissioner. Johnson will support strong agency operations while continuing to retain his general counsel designation.
Together, this leadership team will ensure stability at DHS and continue to reinforce accountability, improve coordination, and protect Medicaid for more than one million Minnesotans who depend on it – almost half of them children.
“I accept this position as a committed public servant," said Temporary Commissioner Connolly, "with continuity of operations at the forefront, to ensure our Medicaid programs are of the highest quality and public funding is aggressively protected and effectively overseen. My priority is to continue transforming a human services system Minnesotans can trust, where program integrity and impact go hand in hand.”
Learn more in the governor's news release.
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A new analysis shows the expected impacts on Minnesotans from upcoming reductions in federal Medicaid coverage of previous medical bills.
Federal law shortens Medicaid retroactive coverage protections starting Jan. 1, 2027; however, the Minnesota Legislature voted to use state dollars to continue three months of retroactive coverage for Minnesotans for an additional year. That means the federal changes are slated to begin in Minnesota on Jan. 1, 2028.
In 2028, retroactive coverage will decrease from three months to:
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One month for low-income adults ages 21–64 without dependent children or certified disabilities.
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Two months for children, parents, pregnant people, seniors, and people with disabilities.
Those cuts will shift significant costs to the poorest Minnesotans and increase uncompensated care for providers.
Current retroactive coverage protections cost less than 1% of overall 2024 Medicaid spending in the state -- and prevented more than $129 million in unpaid medical bills for Minnesotans. Medicaid cuts will shrink this, passing on an estimated $37 million a year to vulnerable Minnesotans and health care providers.
Read the new report from the department’s Office of the Medicaid Medical Director and a fact sheet (PDF) summarizing its findings.
Human Services Inspector General James Clark issued the following statement about federal Medicaid fraud charges announced May 21 by the U.S. Attorney's Office.
“We have been working with career federal and state partners for months to help them build criminal cases against most of these individuals – providing billing and ownership information, investigative files and treatment records for many of the businesses. Medicaid is meant for helping people who truly need it, not lining the pockets of criminals.
“My office continues to use our administrative power to shut off money to these and other Medicaid providers as soon as we uncover credible allegations of fraud, which we’ve done more than 600 times over the past 18 months. In fact, we stopped payments to some of the businesses connected to today’s charges more than a year ago.
“We are working more aggressively than ever to prevent and stop Medicaid fraud – tightening up oversight on the front end and taking action to stop criminals. As our efforts continue, we fully expect to see more charges.”
Since Jan. 1, 2025, the agency has stopped payment to 636 providers based on credible allegations of fraud and made more than 300 referrals to law enforcement.
State agencies and law enforcement have complimentary roles to protect the public. The department has administrative authority to stop payments as soon as we establish credible evidence of fraud, while state and federal law enforcement agencies take time to build cases to prosecute criminals.
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For accessible formats of this publication, write to dhs.communications@state.mn.us, or call 651-431-2000 or use your preferred relay service.
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