The Trump administration has made rooting out fraud a top priority. The White House Task Force to Eliminate Fraud is waging, in their words, “an unrelenting, full-scale assault on the fraudsters, scammers, and corrupt operators who have looted billions from American taxpayers.” They’re halting hundreds of millions in Medicaid payments to Minnesota, blocking $1.3 billion in California, and auditing Medicaid Fraud Control Units in all 50 states. 

One of the biggest fraud magnets in the entire Medicaid program is Applied Behavior Analysis, better known as autism “therapy.” The Department of Health and Human Services Office of the Inspector General has made ABA improper payments a standing item on its work plan, and whenever the auditors pull the thread in a state, they find this program rife with fraud. Every. Single. Time.