Gov. Tim Walz brought aboard a third-party entity Wednesday to audit Medicaid programs to make sure money is being spent as intended.

Payments will be paused for up to 90 days to assess for suspicious billing activity.

The Walz administration has been on defense over reports of fraud in state programs after multiple reports that providers billed for housing stabilization and autism services that weren’t delivered. Investigations and prosecutions are pending.

The DFL governor said the Department of Human Services will work with a group called Optum to analyze claims in 14 high-risk programs. The goal is to flag possible problems, pause suspect payments and head off snowballing fraud.

“We cannot effectively deliver programs and services if they don’t have the backing of the public’s trus

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