An Ohio whistleblower is sounding the alarm on what she describes as a multimillion-dollar Medicaid fraud operation inside the state’s Somali community, a scheme she warns mirrors the explosive social-services scandal still unfolding in Minnesota.
Mehek Cooke, an Ohio attorney and conservative commentator, detailed the allegations in an interview with Fox News, warning that the national outrage over Minnesota’s Feeding Our Future scandal represents only a fraction of what is happening elsewhere.
“Minnesota was just the tip of the spear,” Cooke said.
According to Cooke, multiple providers within Ohio’s Somali community approached her privately, claiming they had been pressured for years to participate in what she called a “massive” Medicaid fraud scheme built around falsified home-health care claims.
She said the operation relies on doctors “rubber-stamping” medical approval forms that allow family members to collect taxpayer-funded Medicaid payouts, up to $91,000 per year per individual, for supposed care tied to fake or exaggerated medical conditions.
Doctors approving the claims, Cooke said, receive kickbacks.
“They’re just rubberstamping a lot of these.
“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.”
A Loophole Exploited
Cooke argues that Ohio’s Medicaid structure, specifically its home-health waiver program, is particularly vulnerable.
“Say I want to take care of my elderly aging parents at some point,” she explained.
“I can become a home health provider, and this is where the Somali community has been really clever.
“They’ve been able to find loopholes in Ohio law to provide for care for family members, even when they don’t need it.”
Providers who approached her, she said, did so at personal risk, warning her that exposure could lead to violent retaliation.
“They would be ‘stoned to death,’” Cooke said.
She emphasized that the problem is not the Somali community as a whole but specific criminal actors taking advantage of weak oversight.
“We have a system right now that’s one of the easiest in the Midwest to game.”
Cooke said the core failure lies with the state: inadequate verification, little enforcement, and almost no independent assessments from doctors or the Ohio Department of Medicaid.
“A lot of times what’s happening is an individual is coached to lie to a doctor,” she said, adding that providers told her “99 percent” of recipients in these cases do not actually qualify for home-health Medicaid benefits.
A Broader National Pattern?
Cooke warned that Ohio’s situation appears to mirror, if not exceed, elements of the Minnesota scandal, where prosecutors uncovered hundreds of millions in fraud tied to pandemic-era child-nutrition funds.
“What we’re seeing in Minneapolis is just a snippet of what’s happening in Ohio,” she said.
She pushed back on attempts to racialize the issue.
“I know that everybody wants to make this a Somali issue or a race issue. It’s not,” Cooke said.
“Our waiver system in Ohio was built with compassion … but it’s being looted today.”
Cooke said the solution starts with transparency and aggressive oversight.
“I think every state, in addition to Ohio, should be asking for audits of their Medicaid system and their programs,” she said.
“At the end of the day, Ohio taxpayers are hurting, the American people are hurting, and we don’t have enough tax dollars.”
WATCH:
READ MORE – Whistleblower: Somali Fraudsters Stole Millions from Taxpayers in Maine
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