Shareholder Matthew Bergeron was quoted in The Star Tribune in an article discussing the latest developments in a lawsuit against the Minnesota Department of Human Services (DHS). The suit was brought by a community service provider for adults with disabilities after DHS suspended its payments due following a credible allegation of fraud.

In an order allowing the suit to go forward, Ramsey County Judge Mark Ireland instructed DHS to show that it is reviewing suspected fraud cases individually instead of using a blanket approach in its payment suspensions.

As Bergeron told The Star Tribune:

… Ireland’s order sends a message to DHS that the state must be intentional about withholding funds. He questioned whether that was the case last year, when in one week Minnesota halted payments to dozens of providers getting paid under Housing Stabilization Services. That program was widely regarded as lacking guardrails to prevent fraud.

“The biggest impact may be demonstrating to the department that, as you do each one of these, you have to think about them individually,“ Bergeron said. “You can’t say, ‘Oh, my gosh, this program seems worrisome. We don’t really understand what’s going on here with some of these folks, so we’re going to shut down the money to a bunch of them.’”