Staff Report

Augusta – On Thursday, Senate Republican members of the Maine Legislature’s Government Oversight Committee (GOC) requested an investigation by the Legislature’s watchdog agency, the Office of Program Evaluation and Government Accountability (OPEGA), into the Maine Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS) over serious allegations of fraud leveled against vendors of MaineCare, the state’s Medicaid program.

“Upon the disclosure of Gateway’s alleged fraud involving interpreter services in May 2025 by a whistleblower, Christopher Bernardini, several members of the Legislature including Assistant Senate Republican Leader Matthew Harrington called for an investigation into the concern and other agencies that provide similar services. When the massive Medicaid fraud in Minnesota regarding daycare and autism services surfaced in the national media just last month, it became evident that Medicaid fraud in Maine could likely go well beyond interpreter services to other areas of MaineCare reimbursements, such as Section 21, 26, 28 and 29 services,” said Senators Jeff Timberlake, Brad Farrin and Stacey Guerin in their letter to the chairs of GOC.

Gateway and other Maine-based organizations suspected of fraud are currently being investigated by both the U.S. House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform and the Department of Homeland Security.

In their request, the trio of senators is seeking GOC’s approval to direct OPEGA to conduct a review of whether MaineCare vendors have had program integrity or compliance audits and to test the veracity of those audits. The request must be approved by a majority of the bipartisan committee’s 12 members.

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