Medicaid provider pleads guilty in 'phantom' medical rides scheme

MINNEAPOLIS (FOX 9) - A woman pleaded guilty to felony charges for her role in a massive criminal enterprise that billed the Medicaid program for "phantom" services.

Medicaid fraud guilty plea

What we know:

Nasro Takhal pleaded guilty Friday to two felony counts of aiding and abetting theft of Medicaid funds as part of a multi-million fraud scheme.

She was charged in 2024 with 17 felonies as part of a multi-year investigation by the state's Medicaid Fraud Control Unit.

The PITSTOP-66 investigation involved numerous Medicaid providers, including interpreters, drivers and clinics.

Prosecutors say they billed the Medicaid program for "phantom" services from 2019-2021.

They were accused of recruiting and exploiting Somali American residents in Faribault to seek medical care in the Twin Cities that they did not actually need or were ineligible to receive.

Prosecutors say they also used "invalid and fabricated" names to submit thousands of Medicaid claims for transportation and interpretation services covered by Medicaid, according to court records.

Takhal and other defendants targeted residents in the Faribault area because it was located less than 60 miles from most Medicaid providers in the Twin Cities. This allowed them to maximize their Medicaid reimbursements from UCare for non-emergency medical transportation.

Why you should care:

Non-emergency medical transportation and interpretation services are two of the 14 Medicaid services flagged as being vulnerable to waste, fraud and abuse.

Minnesota recently froze payments to those programs because of growing concerns about widespread Medicaid fraud in the state.