MINNEAPOLIS — The FBI raided two Minnesota autism centers, one in Minneapolis and one in St. Cloud, as part of a federal investigation into medical fraud that has ties to the $250 million Feeding Our Future child meal fraud case, according to a search warrant unsealed Thursday morning.
Smart Therapy Center, LLC on Nicollet Avenue in Minneapolis' Steven's Square neighborhood and Star Autism Center LLC on 1st Street Nort in St. Cloud both registered with the Minnesota Department of Human Services in the Early Intensive Developmental and Behavioral Intervention (EIDBI) health care program funded by taxpayers to offer medically necessary services to people under 21 living with autism spectrum disorder.
Federal investigators have found "substantial evidence" that many companies, including Smart Therapy Center and Star Autism Center, have been submitting fraudulent claims for EIDBI services that were not provided or that were not covered by EIDBI program, according to the search warrant affidavit. No one has been criminally charged yet in the alleged scheme.
Also in the search warrant affidavit written by Special Agent Kurt Beulke:
Smart Therapy received $13.8 million in reimbursement from Medicaid through DHS between 2020 and November 2024 for claims the FBI believes are fraudulent. A former employee, identified as "Individual A," told investigators one owner is related to Qamar Hassan, a defendant who has already pleaded guilty in the Feeding our Future case. Hassan also was a food vendor for a meal site run by Smart Therapy.
"Individual A" told investigators many kids receiving services at Smart Therapy did not appear to be autistic, and that the owner actively recruited new clients "by talking to parents they knew and even knocking on doors in the community and trying to talk parents into getting their children into autism treatment." The informant also told the feds the owners paid parents to bring their children to Smart Therapy.
The search warrant says Smart Therapy's claims included services supposedly rendered by medical providers who did not work there or were out of the country at the time of the supposed treatment. The investigation is also centered on overbilling, with claims regarding 33 different medical providers adding up to an impossible 50 hours per week.
The number of autism centers and the dollar amount of reimbursement claims in Minnesota have exploded since the pandemic. A total of $32.4 million in Medicaid funds were paid out to autism centers in 2020. That number ballooned to $228 million so far this year. (The dollar figures used here, provided by DHS through data practice requests from months ago, differ from the numbers in the federal search warrant.)
Star Autism Center in St. Cloud has received $6 million in Medicaid reimbursements since August 2020, allegedly by similarly billing for providers who did not work there or were overseas, and additionally making "improbable" claims.
In one example, the search warrant said Star Autism Center billed two clients for 430 hours of services in July 2023 from one medical provider. One supposed client lived in St. Cloud and the other supposed client lived in Willmar, which made it highly improbable that they both saw the same medical provider each day and received that many hours of services at the same time
The Minnesota Department of Human Services initiated an investigation into Star Autism in 2022 and found irregularities in billing, according to the federal warrant. DHS officials have not immediately responded to questions why the center was able to continue operating.
