The Minnesota Department of Human Services says it is resuming payments to most of the thousands of care providers that it had cut off from Medicaid funding in May in a rush to meet a federal deadline.
The state agency notified Medicaid providers Wednesday that it would reinstate payments to providers that had appealed their terminations to ensure Medicaid recipients keep getting care. The update comes after legislators from both parties and advocates for people with disabilities expressed outrage about the agency’s move to cut off payments to 60% of providers of 13 Medicaid services. The 13 Medicaid services are designed to help Minnesota’s most vulnerable populations; they have also been deemed by the state as high-risk for fraud, waste and abuse.
In rush to meet federal deadline, Minnesota cuts funding to 60% of providers in 13 Medicaid programs
The back-and-forth announcements underscored the chaos that’s beset Minnesota’s safety net programs in the past year, when the administration of Gov. Tim Walz began more seriously grappling with a years-old problem of fraud and waste in Minnesota social services, including shutting down one Medicaid program altogether. This was followed by intensive scrutiny — and, critics say, political opportunism — of the Trump administration, which has repeatedly threatened to cut billions in Medicaid funding from the state.
Sue Schettle, the CEO of the Association of Residential Resources Minnesota, which advocates for care providers, called the resumption of payments a move “in the right direction” and a “recognition that the providers that did nothing wrong” need to keep getting paid for services.
The state agency had stopped payments to more than 3,000 providers in its sweeping four-month screening of roughly 5,500 providers — dubbed Minnesota Revalidate 2026 — in response to heightened federal scrutiny over fraud in Minnesota’s social services. The move drew sharp criticism from providers, who said they were terminated for small paperwork details and, in some cases, because the agency didn’t review their applications in time.
Carrie Guida, the executive director of a group home provider in Cass and Crow Wing counties, said that the mass payment cutoff was “unnecessary to start with.”
“They suspended our billing as if we were one of the fraudsters, and we were not,” Guida said.
Guida’s organization, Pine River Group Home, had a revalidation pending review from the Department of Human Services since March. On May 31, the state’s deadline to complete revalidations, Pine River Group Home was terminated.
Like many providers that were terminated, the group home provider received a letter from the Department of Human Services Thursday confirming that it can keep billing Medicaid while its revalidation is in process.
Many providers received a notification from the Minnesota Department of Human Services on Thursday, June 11, 2026, that they can keep billing for payments while their revalidation continues. In a statement, the state agency said that they’ve resumed payments for 2,140 providers, including roughly 1,400 providers in the Thursday batch, and that it has been telling providers that it can turn payments back on if they submit appeals.
“We don’t want to harm legitimate providers. We care deeply that vulnerable Minnesotans are getting the care they need from trusted providers. We also have to make sure that providers are meeting legal requirements to provide services,” the statement reads.
The Department of Human Services, fearing political backlash in the form of funding cuts, didn’t ask for a federal extension to its tight timeline to screen providers.
It appears that Minnesota couldn’t reach the four-month Trump administration timeline. The massive undertaking would normally be completed over the course of 3 to 5 years. Still, in a press release, the Department of Human Services said it had “finished a comprehensive top-to-bottom review … on time on May 31.”
The screening process, or “revalidation,” involves a review of provider documents and unannounced site visits. The department, which enlisted employees from other state agencies for site visits, said it conducted 2,300 visits — fewer than half of the total 5,500 or so providers — by May 31. It also said that not every provider submitted the documents required to move onto a site visit.
One provider advocate, Matthew Bergeron of the Residential Providers Association of Minnesota, said the appeals process seemed to be a way “to get more time without drawing the ire of the feds.”
Minnesota Reformer is part of States Newsroom, a nonprofit news network supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity. Minnesota Reformer maintains editorial independence. Contact Editor J. Patrick Coolican for questions: info@minnesotareformer.com.
