One thing we learned when the fake Somali daycare scandal in Minnesota hit was that the Trump administration's investigation into fraud in the state nailed a pair of autism therapy providers operated by members of Minneapolis’s Somali community that collected $20 million in Medicaid payments for services not rendered. This story from The Wall Street Journal was published on March 10, but the paper re-upped the piece on X on Saturday. It doesn't focus on Somalis, but it does blow the lid off of Medicaid fraud related to autism diagnoses.
She charged $29 million to treat just 84 kids. The boom in autism therapy is Medicaid’s fastest-growing jackpot. https://t.co/zFrlf4uaAY
— The Wall Street Journal (@WSJ) March 21, 2026
The Wall Street Journal reports:
When Meghann Mitchell first launched her autism-therapy business in 2019, she took aim at an unlikely source of profit: Indiana’s taxpayer-funded Medicaid program, the public insurance system for the poor.
The bet paid off. In 2023, the state paid Mitchell’s company, Piece by Piece Autism Centers, $29 million to provide therapy to just 84 patients—about $340,000 a child—according to a Wall Street Journal analysis of Medicaid billing records.
That amount surpassed what Indiana Medicaid typically spends in a year treating a newly diagnosed lung-cancer patient or covering a year of nursing-home care.
Piece by Piece became one of Medicaid’s most expensive providers in part by raising its prices, triggering reimbursements as high as $640 an hour for routine therapy that can be administered by workers with little more than a high-school diploma. Its highest payments were more than 10 times higher than the nation’s average.
Mitchell said her company complied with Indiana’s rules and the state never objected to her prices.
“I don’t think Indiana really had any oversight, or not much,” said Mitchell, who bought a series of properties, including a $2.5 million home on Florida’s Sanibel Island and a $600,000 waterfront house on the Tippecanoe River in Indiana, while her company’s Medicaid billings soared.
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So we're seeing fake Somali daycares in Minnesota, large-scale hospice scams in California, and Medicaid fraud in Indiana (and every other state, we're sure). As The Journal implies, autism is Medicaid's "fastest-growing jackpot."
If a single provider can pull in twenty nine million dollars then the oversight at the state level has completely collapsed.
— Oscar | Æ (@oscar_gnzz) March 21, 2026
This while every senior is now spending down all his life savings to be able to get on Medicaid to afford a nursing home.
— AAE (@AAC0519) March 21, 2026
Fraud and grift on an epic level, brought to you by Democrats.
— The Seed (@theseed59788459) March 21, 2026
This is exactly why the cost of living is skyrocketing while the actual quality of care for these kids remains stagnant.
— Sean | Æ (@Seandmn) March 21, 2026
Why haven't these people been arrested and charged?
— Jeffrey P Jordan (@jeffpjordan) March 21, 2026
And not one person working in government questioned any of this. Maybe the IRS should start auditing some of these agencies like the do the billionaires.
— Mark (@MarkSinelli) March 21, 2026
You couldn't find a way to include the word FRAUD in your headline?
— Silence Dogood (@76SilenceDogood) March 21, 2026
Instead you use "jackpot"?
Strange way to describe fraud, but OK
— Schnib (@schnibbly12) March 21, 2026
Hey! look who's onboard with finding fraudulent spending! The Wall Street Journal.
— Populo Iratus (@astronomy89) March 21, 2026
Finally!
About time.
Wow, look, some actual journalism! @nickshirleyy has started a revival!
— Duane 💙🧡🏒🇺🇸 (@Maddog_12) March 21, 2026
We used to have a high trust society. Culture change has warped that, as smart people get here and game the system immensely
— Sharlo (@SharloCer) March 21, 2026
Infuriating https://t.co/7l3B2jHAYn
— Richard Grenell (@RichardGrenell) March 21, 2026
I’m a special education teacher and autism cases have run rampant. It’s very easy to get an autism diagnosis from doctors.
— Ack Teacher 🇺🇸 (@AckTeacher) March 21, 2026
This editor is pretty certain he would have been "on the spectrum" if autism were a thing when he was a shy kid growing up in the '70s.
The sad thing is there has been no boom in autism over the last ten years just a boom in fraud that’s been artificially jacking up the numbers.
— Kmax (@KmaxGR8) March 21, 2026
Tylenol doesn’t cause autism, fraud does.
— Born on the Crest of a Wave (@Willow_of_the_D) March 21, 2026
It seems that if you want to get rich quickly, you just need to open a "daycare" or an autism therapy center.
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