![\"A](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/jill-mazza-olson-1-20260114-1200x798.jpg\")
Jill Mazza Olson, deputy director for health care reform at the Vermont Agency of Human Services, speaks before the Senate Health and Welfare Committee at the Statehouse in Montpelier on Wednesday, January 14, 2026. Photo by Glenn Russell\/VTDigger<\/p>\n
Updated March 6 at 4:05 p.m.<\/p>\n
Vermont is the target of the latest federal probe into Medicaid fraud, waste and abuse.\u00a0<\/p>\n
State officials received a letter Tuesday from representatives<\/a> on the U.S. House Committee on Energy and Commerce requesting information on the state\u2019s Medicaid program. The committee sent nine other states<\/a> \u2014 almost all of which are Democratic-led, including Maine and Massachusetts \u2014\u00a0similar requests for information.<\/p>\n The letter cites the federal investigation into Minnesota\u2019s Medicaid<\/a> program surrounding suspected fraud, waste and abuse in how health care providers bill the health coverage program for those with low incomes.<\/p>\n \u201cThe Committee is concerned that your state\u2019s Medicaid programs may be similarly vulnerable to (fraud, waste and abuse) that harms Medicaid enrollees, legitimate providers, and taxpayers,\u201d the letter reads.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n Jill Mazza Olson, the Medicaid director for Vermont\u2019s Agency of Human Services, said the state was not necessarily expecting this letter to come from the congressional committee, but has had a \u201cheightened awareness\u201d around waste, fraud and abuse in Medicaid surrounding the national attention.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s something we take really seriously in Vermont,\u201d she said. \u201cWe really try to watch the national landscape.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n Vermont has long been reliant on federal dollars in the federal-state partnership program. In 2024, the program spent $2.3 billion, $1.45 billion of which was drawn from the feds. More than 156,900 Vermonters rely on the program, the letter cites.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n In January, the Department of Vermont Health Access, which administers Vermont Medicaid, requested a $33 million budget adjustment from the federal government to cover this year\u2019s Medicaid costs.\u00a0<\/p>\n Federal dollars, which are matched to state spending, are \u201ccritical\u201d to Vermont, Olson said.\u00a0<\/p>\n The congressional letter, signed by the committee\u2019s Republican majority leaders, says that Vermont\u2019s reliance on Medicaid makes it \u201chigh risk\u201d for fraud, waste and abuse.<\/p>\n The authors go on to cite a number of cases of such errors that the state attorney general\u2019s Medicaid Fraud and Residential Abuse Unit has pursued. That included a $200,000 settlement<\/a> the Burlington mental health care provider Eden Valley had to pay for submitting more than 150 false records on 50 Medicaid claims<\/a>.\u00a0<\/p>\n Another example detailed the felony Medicaid fraud charges the Vermont Attorney General\u2019s Office brought against a Lamoille County couple<\/a> for submitting thousands of dollars worth of false timesheets for caretaking by an unauthorized provider.<\/p>\n \u201cI think I would be concerned about a state that didn\u2019t have any cases of fraud. That would suggest to me that they weren\u2019t looking,\u201d Olson said. \u201cThese are examples of cases of fraud that as a state, we have found and identified, and that\u2019s the purpose of the systems that we have in place.\u201d<\/p>\n The letter\u2019s authors write that mental health care and personal care services<\/a>, which allow Medicaid patients to get support in their own homes or communities, are particularly susceptible to Medicaid fraud.<\/p>\n