A whistleblower alleges a large-scale fraud is unfolding in Ohio’s Somali community, echoing Minnesota’s ongoing, high-profile social services fraud case and suggesting the Minnesota incident may be just the beginning. Mehek Cooke, an Ohio attorney and conservative commentator, told Fox News Digital that Minnesota’s scandal was “the tip of the spear” and that a similar scheme has persisted in Ohio for more than ten years, pilfering millions from taxpayers.
Cooke claims that providers within the Ohio Somali community have been pressured to participate in a widespread Medicaid fraud operation. The alleged scheme involves doctors rubber-stamping home-healthcare payments to family members of elderly individuals for purported medical needs, with some beneficiaries supposedly qualifying for as much as $91,000 per year. In this setup, the doctors who approve these payments are said to receive kickbacks.
According to Cooke, scammers exploit a loophole in Ohio’s Medicaid program that allows payments for caregiving to a family member, even when the recipient does not genuinely require such care. She describes cases where a person, once deemed bedridden, appears on social media engaging in activities like dancing, which raises questions about the authenticity of their medical conditions and eligibility.
Cooke emphasizes that the problem is less about the Somali community as a whole and more about criminals within it who have manipulated Ohio’s Medicaid framework, which she characterizes as one of the easiest in the Midwest to exploit. She explains that individuals can become home-health providers to care for aging parents, and some within the community have found loopholes to arrange care for family members, regardless of actual need.
Providers who spoke to Cooke reportedly did so at great personal risk, warning that exposure could be met with severe backlash. She argues that the state’s oversight system lacks independent assessments that involve not just physicians but representatives from the Department of Medicaid, and she suggests there are few random, routine site visits. In her view, this creates an environment where beneficiaries are coached to misrepresent their situations to doctors.
Cooke states that, based on reports from within the community, about 99 percent of current home-healthcare Medicaid recipients are coached and do not genuinely qualify for the benefit. She contends that what is happening in Minneapolis reflects a broader, ongoing pattern in Ohio.
While she acknowledges sensitivities around race or ethnicity, Cooke stresses that Ohio’s waiver program was established with compassion to assist people in need and is being misused in the present moment. She advocates for audits of Medicaid systems and programs across states, arguing that Ohio taxpayers—and the broader American public—are bearing the financial burden in a time of limited resources.
Peter Pinedo, a politics writer for Fox News Digital, contributed to the reporting.
