AUGUSTA, Maine — Senate Republicans on the Maine Legislature’s Government Oversight Committee requested Thursday that the Office of Program Evaluation and Government Accountability open an investigation into the Maine Department of Health and Human Services over allegations of fraud involving vendors in MaineCare, the state’s Medicaid program.
In a letter to the committee’s chairs, Sens. Jeff Timberlake, Brad Farrin and Stacey Guerin asked the committee to approve directing OPEGA to review 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.
“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,” the senators wrote.
Gateway Community Services 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.
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