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2 Minnesota Autism Therapy Providers Charged in $46 Million Medicaid Fraud Case
The Justice Department announced charges on Thursday against 15 people for attempting to defraud Minnesota Medicaid and other social service programs in the state of more than $90 million.
Top officials, including Robert F. Kennedy Jr., the health and human services secretary, and Mehmet Oz, head of the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, appeared in Minneapolis to announce the charges. “The fraud here in Minnesota is shocking,” said Colin McDonald, an assistant attorney general overseeing the administration’s crackdown on fraud.
Among the defendants are an owner and an employee of autism clinics, who are charged with submitting $46.6 million in fraudulent claims to Medicaid, the public health plan that covers low-income people. Additional defendants were charged with filing bogus claims to Medicaid for other services, including those that assist disabled people with obtaining housing and living independently.
A $5 Million Donation From Big Tobacco Preceded F.D.A. Vape Decision
The tobacco company Reynolds American donated $5 million to a super PAC backed by President Trump last month, about one week before his administration rolled out a new policy that could prove lucrative to the tobacco industry.
The donation, which came through a Reynolds subsidiary and brings to $8 million the total donated by the subsidiary to MAGA Inc., the Trump-backed super PAC, was revealed in a campaign finance report filed Wednesday night. The donation came on April 30.
Two days later, a top executive at Reynolds and two lobbyists who represent the company had lunch with Mr. Trump at his golf club in Jupiter, Fla. Also attending were two executives from Altria, another tobacco company. At the lunch, the tobacco industry representatives expressed dissatisfaction with the way the Food and Drug Administration was regulating the industry, as The New York Times reported last week.
Acting Head of NIH’s Infectious Disease Institute Reported to Have Stepped Down
Yet another leadership position at the National Institutes of Health appears to be vacant. Jeffery Taubenberger, who has been serving as acting head of the National Institute for Allergy and Infectious Diseases, has stepped down, Sen. Tammy Baldwin (D-Wis.) revealed Thursday during a hearing of the Senate Appropriations Committee.
It was unclear when Taubenberger, who has been serving in the role since April 2025, stepped down, or why, though there has been chatter in infectious diseases research circles that Taubenberger had stepped down about two weeks ago. STAT has asked the Department of Health and Human Services about his status several times; those queries have gone unanswered and unacknowledged.
Staff at NIAID have not been informed, though rumors were starting to make the rounds earlier this week, one employee told STAT, speaking on the condition of anonymity.
US Enlists Small Biotech for Experimental Ebola Treatment
US officials are working with a small biotech company to provide an experimental treatment that may be used in patients exposed to Ebola, according to a person familiar with the matter. The closely held firm, Mapp Biopharmaceutical Inc., is working with the Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority, or BARDA, to deliver its drug for potential use in patients, said the person, who asked not to be identified.
Mapp, based in San Diego, focuses on developing vaccines and treatments for infectious diseases. The company had an experimental drug for Ebola that was given to a few American aid workers during a 2014 outbreak in Africa. On its website, the company says that drug, ZMapp, has been discontinued, but it lists another early-stage treatment for the virus in its pipeline.
That drug, MBP134, is a monoclonal antibody, a class of medicine aimed at boosting the immune system by identifying antibodies from people who were infected and making large amounts of them.
As Ebola Cases Rise, Americans Returning From DRC Must Enter US Via Washington Dulles
U.S. News & World Report reported:
As Ebola cases rise in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Americans who have been in that country, Uganda, or South Sudan within the last three weeks must only return to the United States through Washington Dulles for enhanced screening, the State Department said Thursday.
The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and Customs and Border Protection are applying enhanced public health screening at Dulles in response to the Ebola outbreak. An Air France flight from Paris to Detroit on Wednesday was ordered diverted to Montreal after a passenger from the DRC boarded “in error,” CBP said.
Secretary of State Marco Rubio said Thursday the diversion was to ensure Ebola does not reach the United States.
“We had a flight last night headed to Detroit that was diverted because we have to protect the American people. So, objective number one is to make sure that Ebola never reaches the United States. Objective number two is do what we can to help the people of DRC and neighboring countries so it doesn’t spread.”
FDA Warns Louisiana Principal Investigator Over Serious Adverse Event Reporting Failures
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has issued a formal Warning Letter to clinical investigator Dr. Naseem A. Jaffrani of Alexandria, Louisiana, citing significant failures involving the reporting of serious adverse events (SAEs) during multiple investigational drug trials.
The warning, issued May 4, 2026, followed an FDA inspection conducted between February 24 and March 13, 2025, at Dr. Jaffrani’s clinical research site, CHRISTUS Heart & Vascular Institute (part of CHRISTUS Health) located at 3311 Prescott Road in Alexandria. The underlying study protocols and investigational products were largely redacted in the public FDA letter. According to FDA’s Office of Scientific Investigations, Dr. Jaffrani failed to ensure that the studies were conducted in accordance with investigational plans requiring SAEs to be reported to sponsors within 24 hours of site awareness.
FDA documented repeated reporting delays involving severe medical events including non-ST elevation myocardial infarction (NSTEMI), pulmonary embolism, deep vein thrombosis, COVID-19 pneumonia, congestive heart failure exacerbation, worsening ischemic cardiomyopathy, post-operative hematoma, and hypotension. In several cases, reports were delayed for weeks or months after the site became aware of the events.
