States Criminalize Medicaid Kickbacks

State legislatures can close federal enforcement gaps by enacting their own criminal bans on kickbacks and by patching Medicaid billing rules. Minnesota’s 2025 law, passed after local investigations, makes offering or accepting referral payments tied to federally payable services a state crime and targets billing practices that inflate Medicaid claims. — If other states replicate Minnesota’s approach, it could shift the balance of fraud enforcement from reactive federal probes to proactive state regulation, changing accountability, compliance costs, and how care providers structure services.