An Ohio attorney says a long-running Medicaid scheme involving fraudulent home health care claims may be costing taxpayers millions, warning that Minnesota’s scandal represents only a fraction of a broader problem.
By yourNEWS Media Newsroom
As investigations continue into a large-scale social services fraud case in Minnesota, an Ohio attorney is alleging that a similar and long-running scheme has been operating within the Ohio Somali community, potentially costing taxpayers millions of dollars over more than a decade, Fox News reported.
Mehek Cooke, an Ohio-based attorney and conservative commentator, said in an interview with Fox News, that what surfaced in Minnesota represents “just the tip of the spear,” and that comparable abuse of Medicaid programs is occurring in Ohio.
According to Cooke, multiple providers within the Ohio Somali community have privately disclosed that they were pressured to participate in what she described as a “massive” Medicaid fraud operation. The alleged scheme centers on home health care benefits, where family members are paid to provide care to elderly relatives who, Cooke says, often do not require such assistance.
She alleged that doctors play a key role by approving home health care claims without proper medical justification, effectively “rubber stamping” diagnoses for conditions that do not exist. In return, she said, those doctors receive kickbacks tied to the approved claims.
“They’re just rubber stamping a lot of these,” Cooke said. “And then that same individual, a week later, that’s supposed to be bedridden, is all over social media, whether they’re out dancing at a party or something like that. So, the symptoms aren’t really adding up at the end of the day.”
Cooke explained that Ohio’s Medicaid waiver system allows individuals to receive payments—up to roughly $91,000 per year per patient—for providing in-home care to family members. She said the structure of the program has made it vulnerable to exploitation, particularly when combined with limited oversight.
“The problem today is not the community; it’s actually the criminals within the Somalian community that have exploited Ohio’s Medicaid program,” Cooke said. She added that Ohio’s system is “one of the easiest in the Midwest to game.”
Cooke said individuals can become approved home health providers for their own relatives even when those relatives do not need care. She described this as a loophole that has been systematically exploited through falsified medical assessments and coached testimony.
Providers who disclosed the alleged fraud to her did so at significant personal risk, Cooke said, claiming they feared severe retaliation if their identities were revealed.
“We have entrusted states to look at the funding and to allocate it to build programs, to build rules and regulations,” she said. “But unfortunately, in states like Ohio, it is being infiltrated and broken down because you don’t actually have independent assessments.”
Cooke said oversight failures include a lack of random in-home visits, insufficient independent medical evaluations, and minimal involvement from state Medicaid officials once benefits are approved. She alleged that beneficiaries are frequently coached on what to tell doctors to secure eligibility.
According to Cooke, providers within the community told her that the vast majority of individuals receiving home health Medicaid benefits—she estimated as high as 99 percent—do not legitimately qualify.
“What we’re seeing in Minneapolis is just a snippet of what’s happening in Ohio,” she said.
Cooke rejected claims that the issue should be framed as racial or ethnic, emphasizing that the underlying problem lies in program design and enforcement rather than any specific community.
“Our waiver system in Ohio was built with compassion,” she said. “It was built to really help individuals that are struggling and in need, but it’s being looted today.”
She called for comprehensive audits of Medicaid programs not only in Ohio but nationwide, warning that unchecked fraud ultimately harms taxpayers and reduces resources for those who genuinely need assistance.
“At the end of the day, Ohio taxpayers are hurting, the American people are hurting, and we don’t have enough tax dollars,” Cooke said.
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