Smart Therapy Center is an autism center housed inside this building on Nicollet Avenue in Minneapolis. Photo by Max Nesterak/Minnesota Reformer.
A former supervisor at a Minneapolis autism therapy provider called Smart Therapy Center made repeated attempts to report what she said were negligence and fraud to state officials.
The woman, who was granted anonymity because she fears retribution for speaking out, said she worked at the autism center for almost two years.
“Clients aren’t learning anything from this agency. This agency will do anything to keep clients from going to other centers to seek the additional assistance they require or need,” she wrote in an email to the state Department of Human Services.
The former Smart Therapy worker’s account offers clues as to why and how federal investigators are examining potential Medicaid fraud in the state autism program, as the Reformer first reported in June.
Minnesota doesn’t license autism centers, so there’s virtually no regulatory oversight. A federal investigation of a fraud-riddled federal child nutrition program unearthed connections to Minnesota autism centers, which have exploded in growth since 2018. The number of autism therapy providers increased 700% in the past five years, while payments to providers increased a whopping 3,000%.