Federal and state agents descended on two Minnesota autism therapy centers Thursday morning, executing court-authorized search warrants as part of an active Medicaid fraud investigation. The targets were Iska Inc. in St. Louis Park and Bright Horizon Therapy Center in Edina, two providers that together have collected tens of millions of dollars in Medicaid funds for autism services over the past several years.
The Minnesota Attorney General's Medicaid Fraud Control Unit executed the warrants at the two sites, according to the Post Bulletin. Both businesses provide services through the state's Early Intensive Developmental and Behavioral Intervention program, known as EIDBI, along with other Medicaid-funded services, the paper reported. FOX 9 Minneapolis-St. Paul first identified the two businesses as the search targets in its own coverage of the raids.
Iska Inc. received more than $16.7 million in Medicaid funds for autism services between 2018 and 2025, while Bright Horizon Therapy Center took in nearly $17.7 million from 2020 to 2025, according to the Star Tribune. Bright Horizon's billing growth was especially steep: the center billed the state less than $200,000 in 2020, a figure that climbed to more than $7.5 million last year, per CBS News Minnesota.
A Multi-Agency Push With No Public Answers Yet
The investigation draws on a wide bench of federal and state agencies. Investigators from the FBI, the Department of Health and Human Services' Office of Inspector General, IRS criminal investigators, U.S. Postal Inspectors, the Bureau of Criminal Apprehension and the Minnesota Medicaid Fraud Control Unit were all engaged in what officials called court-authorized investigative activity at several sites Thursday morning, the Post Bulletin reported. FBI Minneapolis confirmed the activity but offered little elaboration, telling MPR News, “This is an active investigation, and no further details are available at this time.”
It remains unclear exactly what investigators were seeking inside the two centers, CBS News Minnesota reported. No charges, allegations, or findings specific to Iska Inc. or Bright Horizon Therapy Center have been made public, and neither business has issued a statement.
Part of a Broader Crackdown on Autism Billing
Thursday's searches are not an isolated event. Federal agents raided five other Twin Cities autism centers in April as part of an ongoing fraud probe tied to EIDBI, according to the same CBS News Minnesota report. That earlier action, carried out by the Minnesota Medicaid Fraud Control Unit in collaboration with federal law enforcement, hit five sites connected to four businesses that accepted Medicaid funds through the EIDBI program, per the Minnesota Attorney General's Office's own announcement at the time. The office has noted that its fraud unit shares original criminal and civil jurisdiction over Medicaid fraud cases with federal law enforcement.
Earlier cases tied to EIDBI and 2024 FBI raids have already produced legal consequences. At least four people connected to autism centers searched in December 2024 have been charged with defrauding the state autism services program, the Star Tribune reported. As of April, two people had pleaded guilty to stealing millions of taxpayer dollars in cases linked to those earlier raids, according to CBS News Minnesota.
State regulators have flagged EIDBI as a persistent vulnerability. Minnesota officials have labeled the autism services program one of 14 Medicaid-funded programs considered “high risk” for fraud, per the Star Tribune's reporting. In response, the Minnesota Department of Human Services began contracting with private-sector health care auditors in January to conduct targeted audits of billing outliers within the program, the same report noted.
For now, the scope of Thursday's search remains defined by what investigators have confirmed: two providers, millions in Medicaid billing, and an expanding multi-agency investigation that officials say is still unfolding.
