Twenty folks, a psychological well being enterprise and a church have been charged in an indictment that alleged Arizona’s Medicaid program was defrauded $60 million in a scheme involving billing for psychological well being remedy and dependancy rehabilitation, the newest indictment in a sequence of crackdowns within the state specializing in sober residing properties.
The indictment introduced Tuesday alleged Completely satisfied Home Behavioral Well being LLC was paid the cash for providers that have been both by no means offered or solely partially accomplished and that there was billing for shoppers who have been deceased and incarcerated.
Authorities say sober residing properties referred shoppers to the behavioral well being enterprise, which acquired cash from the Arizona Well being Care Price Containment System after which paid the properties for the shoppers in violation of state legislation.
Cash laundering prices alleged Completely satisfied Home Behavioral Well being paid $5 million in July 2023 to a Hope of Life Worldwide Church, which later wired $2 million to an entity in Rwanda.
The costs towards Completely satisfied Home Behavioral Well being embody conspiracy, fraud, forgery, theft and cash laundering.
The Related Press left an e mail with a lawyer representing Completely satisfied Home Behavioral Well being.
In a press release, Hope of Life Worldwide Church mentioned it was unjustly charged with cash laundering for accepting a donation from a licensed sober residing facility that was a tenant of the church and was later accused of defrauding the state’s Medicaid program. The church mentioned it didn’t have entry to the sober residing facility’s inner operations, monetary practices or administration selections.
“The church’s only relationship was that of a landlord and, later, as a recipient of a donation — a donation accepted in good faith, consistent with its mission and longstanding practice,” the assertion mentioned.

In all, greater than 100 folks and several other corporations have been charged in circumstances introduced by Lawyer Basic Kris Mayes’ workplace within the state’s crackdown on Medicaid fraud and unlicensed sober residing properties, lots of which focused tribal neighborhood members. The state had suspended funds to greater than 100 suppliers as a part of the crackdown.
The rip-off had left an unknown variety of Native Individuals homeless on the streets of metro Phoenix as fraudulent sober residing properties misplaced their funding and turned former residents out onto the streets.
Navajos account for many Native Individuals grappling with addictions who’ve been affected by the rip-off. Navajo officers say that in some circumstances, individuals who ended up within the properties have been picked up in unmarked vans and pushed to the Phoenix space from faraway locations on the sprawling Navajo Nation that stretches throughout northern Arizona, and components of New Mexico and Utah.