Auditor Finds Massive Fraud In Autism Billing In NC

Gee, who could have seen this coming?

North Carolina auditor says there’s been a 47,000 percent rise in autism therapy billings

The elected state auditor of North Carolina said the value of autism therapy billings to the state’s Medicaid program has increased by roughly 47,000 percent over a five-year period, raising concerns about possible waste, fraud or abuse.

Dave Boliek, who took office last year and oversees the finances of all state agencies, revealed that in 2020, providers billed Health and Human Services about $1.4 million a year for autism therapy services.

According to Boliek, that number has since ballooned to $660 million on an annual basis.

‘Those are vital services to folks and individuals that need that therapy,’ Boliek said in an interview with Fox News Digital. ‘That begs an audit from the state auditor… we are the top watchdog agency for taxpayer waste, fraud, and abuse prevention. So we’ve dug down into that.’ (snip)

By fiscal year 2026, the state’s projected expenditures on these services will be $842 million, and in 2027, it is expected to rise to $1.1 billion. The report also shows that there were just 3,844 users of these therapies in 2022 as opposed to 13,447 in 2025.

‘Utilization growth far outpaces increases in Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) diagnosis,’ the report said, adding that it is ‘unlikely that this level of growth can be explained by increased access alone.’

Where’s the money going? There’s no way that you get that much of a rise in billings in just a few years, right? If the state actually does a real audit and starts visiting those billing the state I’m betting it will look just like those “learing centers” and such in Minnesota. The government, at the state and federal levels, has made it incredibly too easy to commit fraud. How many have not been caught and won’t be?

In North Carolina, Boliek believes the potential fraud on his hands is due to a general lack of understanding about who is supposed to submit invoices to Health and Human Services. He also said some instances of duplicative billing are likely illegal.

‘We’ve seen examples where there might be three different clinical providers billing during the same tranche of time on an autism therapy client and that is because of poor rulemaking,’ he said. ‘Some of it is possibly illegal and probably illegal, and we’re going to point that out, and we’re going to try to put people in cuffs because of it.’

Would you run your own personal finances like this? And it begs the question how much more money has been wasted via the full Medicaid system? Not that the local news outlets care. None are covering this, much like most California outlets are not covering Gavin Newsom’s diaper scam.