Arizona supposedly has ongoing sober living fraud
Arizona is the site of an alleged Medicaid fraud. The suspected bogus healthcare institutions, which target Native Americans registered in Arizona’s Medicaid program, have gone unchecked for years throughout the Phoenix area.
Many people are dying or being forced to relocate within the city as a result of this. To address sober living and crack down on their deceptive tactics, bills were introduced.
“Arizona Horizon” was joined by Stephanie Innes, a health writer for “The Arizona Republic” and azcentral.com, to talk about the developments and their impact on the Indigenous population.
“Real estate fraud in sobriety is nothing new. Although the alleged dishonest providers targeted private insurance, it occurred in Florida eight years ago, according to Innes. “In this instance in Arizona, fraud was committed against the government and taxpayers.”
Patients have occasionally been duped into accepting alcohol and drugs in exchange for being falsely billed for medical care they did not receive.
According to Innes, these aboriginal people were essentially sitting ducks in this scam. People took advantage of the lack of many therapeutic services on the reserves.
White vans would approach the reservations and offer them free meals, housing, and medical care provided they accompanied them. Even free dinners would be used as a luring tactic to get customers to listen to their proposals.
Since they would approach these people when they were inebriated and readily convinced, Innes likens this to a sensation of kidnapping.
As it was financially advantageous for these sober living facilities to have full rooms, they frequently supplied drugs and alcohol to the residents in order to continue charging them. They were charging more than $1,000 per patient each day.