A federal judge has declined to block the federal government from halting more than $240 million in Medicaid payments to Minnesota.
Federal officials in February announced they would freeze $259 million in Medicaid funding to the state. In the announcement, Vice President JD Vance cited concerns over fraud.
Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison sued the federal Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services and the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services to stop them from halting $243 million of that funding. Attorneys for the state had asked Judge Eric Tostrud to issue a temporary injunction reinstating the payments.
In an order issued Monday, Tostrud said the courts need to wait for federal agencies to finish their own investigations and make a final decision on the funding freeze.
“Minnesota’s request for a preliminary injunction depends on assuming that predicted future events come to pass. As a rule, the law does not allow a preliminary injunction to be issued based on assumptions like these,” the judge wrote.
Tostrud also wrote that Minnesota “credibly complains that the federal government’s deferral is historically unprecedented in its size and timing.” But he said the freeze likely complies with federal regulations.
While he denied the injunction in his ruling Monday, Tostrud said attorneys for the state raised “reasonable legal concerns.”
“It is possible the record may support these concerns in the future. Today it does not,” Tostrud wrote.
Attorneys for the state of Minnesota have said the $243 million they’re contesting is already subject to another federal attempt to block funding. Attorneys argued the federal government can’t attempt to block that funding through two channels at once.
During a court hearing in March, Minnesota Assistant Attorney General Nate Brennaman accused the federal government of freezing payments for political reasons. He quoted a January social media post by President Donald Trump promising a “reckoning and retribution” against Minnesota.
“Everything screams that this is politically driven,” Brennaman said.
Attorneys for the federal government pointed back to fraud concerns in Minnesota, and said the freeze was necessary to ensure the state is administering the funding correctly.
The lawsuit is ongoing.
