Remember this?

Seven weeks ago, I wrote about the fraud measures that Governor Walz is taking to audit 14 programs that support people with disabilities in Minnesota. I use 2 of the programs that are being audited – Individualized Home Supports (IHS) and Nighttime Supervision. I work with a small agency that provides these services so that I am able to live independently with support in my community.

My concerns that I wrote about 7 weeks ago still remain. How are people with disabilities being notified if our provider agencies are being audited or having payment paused during investigations? Do we only find out if our provider agency tells us or our staff no longer are getting paid and don’t come to work? Or if an agency is being investigated, are plans in place to make sure that our staff can be hired by other agencies so that there isn’t an interruption in services that are needed to literally survive? In this case that Jessie Van Berkel wrote about last week, it doesn’t appear so.

Minnesota needs a better system to help vulnerable people who are losing services amid the state’s fraud crackdown, according to social service providers, who said Wednesday that a recent death shows clients are falling through the cracks. Disability services providers accuse state of leaving clients vulnerable amid fraud crackdown | The Minnesota Star Tribune | 12/18/2025

This person died alone in their home! How many us are going to fall through the cracks? How many of us are going to be left hanging without services?  We all deserve to live with dignity and respect. I’m angry and my heart is breaking for this person who was left without care. It’s important to go after the fraud but don’t let the reasons these programs exist and the humans that need this care get lost in the process.

From Oh Snap! by me, 11/2/2025:

Governor Walz announced last week that they’d be auditing 14 programs that support people with disabilities in Minnesota. I depend on two of those programs for all of my staffing. As part of the audit process, if funding is paused to the provider I use, then WHAT HAPPENS TO ME? What happens to MY STAFF?

I’ll be back to square one if my staff aren’t paid. It would mean that I would probably need to move back home until this is all sorted. That could then result in impacts to my housing voucher, SSI, and the other services I have fought so hard for and, if I lose any of them, could be IMPOSSIBLE to get them back with the current state of our country.

And, by the way, I’m very grateful that I have a home and family to return to – but others won’t. What happens to them? Emergency rooms or more costly institutionalized types of care?

Was this what my Governor intended? I know fraud and waste = bad. AND I’m not fraud AND my staff aren’t waste. But, I feel as if people with disabilities and their staff are the ones who will be paying the price. It just feels as if there could have been a better way to set up these services with needed oversight to prevent and detect potential fraud in the first place.