PHOENIX — Nearly 300 people were forced out of fraudulent rehab centers in metro Phoenix as authorities continued to investigate the scam, and almost three-quarters of those people were Navajo Nation tribal members, according to figures compiled in the first month of the tribe’s Operation Rainbow Bridge.
AHCCCS has suspended or terminated about 200 providers as of June 1, according to Operation Rainbow Bridge website.
Because of the suspension, some of the sober living homes have closed, and tribal officials have been working to help people who were affected, reconnecting them with family members and, in some cases, finding people who had been on missing persons lists.
Last month, Arizona Gov. Katie Hobbs and Attorney General Kris Mayes laid out the details of a fake rehab center scheme that has defrauded Arizona taxpayers of millions of dollars. Scammers would prey on vulnerable Indigenous people in tribal communities and border towns by promising to take them to facilities that were supposed to help them on a path to getting sober. Instead, the centers were fronts to gain access to the Arizona Health Care Cost Containment System, Arizona’s Medicaid program.
The investigation by the FBI and Arizona Attorney General’s Office resulted in the suspension of payment to the fraudulent facilities, which displaced Indigenous people, often leaving them on the streets of Phoenix.
Navajo Nation Attorney General Ethel Branch broke down numbers from the operation’s first month, in which two teams, the Navajo Nation Police and Navajo Department of Transportation, traveled across Phoenix to contact people who had been displaced by the fraudulent sober or rehab centers.
“Our primary objective with Operation Rainbow Bridge is to prevent our relatives from being displaced on the streets of Phoenix in the hottest months of the year,” said Branch.
Most people caught up in the scam were from the Navajo Nation
Branch said the Navajo Police team worked on the operation for 18 days, concluding last Friday. During that time, they made contact with six people who were on the Navajo Nation’s missing persons list, one on the Bureau of Indian Affairs missing person list, and one whose family was about to report him missing.
“Like literally, as our officers were talking with this individual, his family called in and said they wanted to report a family member missing,” said Branch. “And our officer was like, ‘Oh, we are talking to him right now.’”
According to Branch’s report:
On May 19, teams made contact with 36 Navajo men, 11 Navajo women, and 10 non-Navajos.
From May 22-26, authorities made contact with 88 Navajos — 66 Navajo men and 22 Navajo women — and in total 124 Indigenous people.
From May 30-June 3, the totals were 24 Navajo men and 11 Navajo women, with a total of 60 Indigenous people.
From June 5-9, authorities met with 14 Navajo men and three Navajo women, with a total of 30 Indigenous people.
In all, 271 people were displaced by the enforcement, and of those, 187 were Navajo.
After Operation Rainbow Bridge was established, one of the resources added to assist victims of fraudulent centers was a 2-1-1 helpline number, which could provide aid for transportation or housing. Officials found callers often waited up to 45 minutes to an hour to speak to an operator.
“We want people to utilize that as much as possible,” Branch said. “In order to make sure there is another point of entry, we have created Operation Rainbow Bridge hotline, 1-855-HELP-ORB.”
Officials have also set up a new website, operationrainbowbridge.com. From the website, a person can report a concern, such as individuals moving from home to home, and someone who was displaced can seek help. It also has a list of the facilities that have been suspended and a “locate me” option for people who have no clue where they are.
Recruiters, providers and housing sources help run the scam
Branch said as the scams play out in real-time, there are three bad actors: the recruiter, provider and housing provider.
The provider is the entity that should be providing the behavioral health services, sober living tools and mental health services. Some are delivering partial services, but there are scammers using individuals’ personal information to submit for billing reimbursement, sometimes even if a person is dead.
The housing provider is unregulated and licenses aren’t required to operate. One hotel is housing over 200 Indigenous people in the city, half of them children, and the hotel has armed guards. Branch said one residence in a community can also operate as a housing provider, and the community may never know, or it can be a number of homes that can be managed by individuals. People have been able to make money just by housing people in their homes.
Branch said authorities are advocating for this to change, and have met with AHCCCS and Arizona Department of Health to develop a framework that will protect Indigenous individuals as much as any Arizonan.
“For non-Indians who go through the MCO (managed care organizations) through the state, there is actually a front-end licensing process that the Department of Health runs and there is ongoing monitoring to ensure that services are being safely and adequately provided,” said Branch. “But for some reason with the American Indian Health fee-for-pay program, there isn’t any of that and that’s a big hole. Seems kind of like a no-brainer, especially if they want to end this fraudulent practice.”
Recruiters can be tribal members, even families of those taken to the centers. It’s not just white vans or non-Navajo scammers who have transported people to the centers. Navajo lawmakers have said that the ever-popular non-medical emergency vehicles that operate on the Navajo Nation have been known to transport individuals to these centers.
“Recruiters will show up at health care facilities on reservation or border towns,” said Branch. “Recruiters are out there identifying vulnerable individuals, so be sure to let your family know, if they are hanging out in the street, not to hang out by themself and be aware of this potential risk.”
She said a person she spoke to thought he was getting his house reroofed if he got into the vehicle and didn’t realize what he was getting himself into.
“Some recruiters are tribal members,” warned Branch. “And they are recruiting family members even. So that’s one thing to be aware of.”
Why there was too little information for so long
Before Navajo Nation council delegate George Tolth was elected, he was one of the many Navajo family members trying to locate a missing relative who had been swept up in the most recent scam to target Navajo and other tribal communities.
“My brother was involved,” said Tolth. “I took this picture of this van. This van took him to Phoenix.”
He said his brother was walking down the street in Gallup, New Mexico, after getting treated at the local hospital and was approached by a recruiter. At the time, hardly any attention was placed on the issue by tribal or state leadership or authorities, so no warning was ever made to be vigilant of these recruiters. The first time, his brother was brought back from the facility, but left in a van again. The second time, through a couple of phone calls with his brother, Tolth was able to find out where he was.
“The first time he came back in this white van, there was three Navajos in there,” said Tolth. “I called the Navajo PD, they stopped them, nothing happened. Along the line they picked up another individual, that’s when the police officer stopped them.”
It’s not known what happened after officers were able to stop the van, but Tolth’s brother had returned to the city. Eventually, Tolth retrieved him. He thought his brother would be in a legitimate rehabilitation facility, but it was a residence. Tolth was bewildered since, at the time, there was little to no information on the rehab scam, even though state authorities said they’d been investigating it for the past three years.
He said he notified Navajo police, criminal investigators and even the Federal Bureau of Investigation to no avail, so he is happy something is finally happening to address this scam.
“We are making sure we are catching them where they are and receiving them with resources and help,” said Branch, “helping them transition them to a safer, better place, whether that’s transitioning them to legitimate health care providers, we hope. I mean there is still no front-end regulations, but we’re moving them to new providers that have some level of diligence and are on a preferred list.”
Branch said the biggest challenge is trying to help those who have been misled into thinking they were going somewhere legitimate, safe and helpful, only to be taken advantage of. These people want to go home, and Branch said even after comments by the governor’s office, this process has seen some setbacks.
Hobbs said in May that her administration would prosecute bad actors, ensure wraparound services are delivered to the people affected by provider closure, and enact systemic reforms to the AHCCCS billing system to root out this type of fraudulent billing. She also said to families and victims of these facilities that “the state of Arizona believes” them, and is committed to working on solving this problem and get people home.
“We’re making sure those people do get home to their doorstep,” said Branch. “That was something that the governor’s staff said would happen, but unfortunately that’s not what we are seeing happen. They’re getting to the Greyhound station, which in many cases are in border towns, not a great place for a person struggling with addiction issues. We want to make sure people actually get to their homes, to their families. Our folks doing transport are delivering people to their doorstep and handing them off to their family members.”
This story was originally published in the AZ Republic and is reprinted with permission.
PHOENIX — Nearly 300 people were forced out of fraudulent rehab centers in metro Phoenix as authorities continued to investigate the scam, and almost three-quarters of those people were Navajo Nation tribal members, according to figures compiled in the first month of the tribe’s Operation Rainbow Bridge.
AHCCCS has suspended or terminated about 200 providers as of June 1, according to Operation Rainbow Bridge website.
Because of the suspension, some of the sober living homes have closed, and tribal officials have been working to help people who were affected, reconnecting them with family members and, in some cases, finding people who had been on missing persons lists.
Last month, Arizona Gov. Katie Hobbs and Attorney General Kris Mayes laid out the details of a fake rehab center scheme that has defrauded Arizona taxpayers of millions of dollars. Scammers would prey on vulnerable Indigenous people in tribal communities and border towns by promising to take them to facilities that were supposed to help them on a path to getting sober. Instead, the centers were fronts to gain access to the Arizona Health Care Cost Containment System, Arizona’s Medicaid program.
The investigation by the FBI and Arizona Attorney General’s Office resulted in the suspension of payment to the fraudulent facilities, which displaced Indigenous people, often leaving them on the streets of Phoenix.
Navajo Nation Attorney General Ethel Branch broke down numbers from the operation’s first month, in which two teams, the Navajo Nation Police and Navajo Department of Transportation, traveled across Phoenix to contact people who had been displaced by the fraudulent sober or rehab centers.
“Our primary objective with Operation Rainbow Bridge is to prevent our relatives from being displaced on the streets of Phoenix in the hottest months of the year,” said Branch.
Most people caught up in the scam were from the Navajo Nation
Branch said the Navajo Police team worked on the operation for 18 days, concluding last Friday. During that time, they made contact with six people who were on the Navajo Nation’s missing persons list, one on the Bureau of Indian Affairs missing person list, and one whose family was about to report him missing.
“Like literally, as our officers were talking with this individual, his family called in and said they wanted to report a family member missing,” said Branch. “And our officer was like, ‘Oh, we are talking to him right now.’”
According to Branch’s report:
On May 19, teams made contact with 36 Navajo men, 11 Navajo women, and 10 non-Navajos.
From May 22-26, authorities made contact with 88 Navajos — 66 Navajo men and 22 Navajo women — and in total 124 Indigenous people.
From May 30-June 3, the totals were 24 Navajo men and 11 Navajo women, with a total of 60 Indigenous people.
From June 5-9, authorities met with 14 Navajo men and three Navajo women, with a total of 30 Indigenous people.
In all, 271 people were displaced by the enforcement, and of those, 187 were Navajo.
After Operation Rainbow Bridge was established, one of the resources added to assist victims of fraudulent centers was a 2-1-1 helpline number, which could provide aid for transportation or housing. Officials found callers often waited up to 45 minutes to an hour to speak to an operator.
“We want people to utilize that as much as possible,” Branch said. “In order to make sure there is another point of entry, we have created Operation Rainbow Bridge hotline, 1-855-HELP-ORB.”
Officials have also set up a new website, operationrainbowbridge.com. From the website, a person can report a concern, such as individuals moving from home to home, and someone who was displaced can seek help. It also has a list of the facilities that have been suspended and a “locate me” option for people who have no clue where they are.
Recruiters, providers and housing sources help run the scam
Branch said as the scams play out in real-time, there are three bad actors: the recruiter, provider and housing provider.
The provider is the entity that should be providing the behavioral health services, sober living tools and mental health services. Some are delivering partial services, but there are scammers using individuals’ personal information to submit for billing reimbursement, sometimes even if a person is dead.
The housing provider is unregulated and licenses aren’t required to operate. One hotel is housing over 200 Indigenous people in the city, half of them children, and the hotel has armed guards. Branch said one residence in a community can also operate as a housing provider, and the community may never know, or it can be a number of homes that can be managed by individuals. People have been able to make money just by housing people in their homes.
Branch said authorities are advocating for this to change, and have met with AHCCCS and Arizona Department of Health to develop a framework that will protect Indigenous individuals as much as any Arizonan.
“For non-Indians who go through the MCO (managed care organizations) through the state, there is actually a front-end licensing process that the Department of Health runs and there is ongoing monitoring to ensure that services are being safely and adequately provided,” said Branch. “But for some reason with the American Indian Health fee-for-pay program, there isn’t any of that and that’s a big hole. Seems kind of like a no-brainer, especially if they want to end this fraudulent practice.”
Recruiters can be tribal members, even families of those taken to the centers. It’s not just white vans or non-Navajo scammers who have transported people to the centers. Navajo lawmakers have said that the ever-popular non-medical emergency vehicles that operate on the Navajo Nation have been known to transport individuals to these centers.
“Recruiters will show up at health care facilities on reservation or border towns,” said Branch. “Recruiters are out there identifying vulnerable individuals, so be sure to let your family know, if they are hanging out in the street, not to hang out by themself and be aware of this potential risk.”
She said a person she spoke to thought he was getting his house reroofed if he got into the vehicle and didn’t realize what he was getting himself into.
“Some recruiters are tribal members,” warned Branch. “And they are recruiting family members even. So that’s one thing to be aware of.”
Why there was too little information for so long
Before Navajo Nation council delegate George Tolth was elected, he was one of the many Navajo family members trying to locate a missing relative who had been swept up in the most recent scam to target Navajo and other tribal communities.
“My brother was involved,” said Tolth. “I took this picture of this van. This van took him to Phoenix.”
He said his brother was walking down the street in Gallup, New Mexico, after getting treated at the local hospital and was approached by a recruiter. At the time, hardly any attention was placed on the issue by tribal or state leadership or authorities, so no warning was ever made to be vigilant of these recruiters. The first time, his brother was brought back from the facility, but left in a van again. The second time, through a couple of phone calls with his brother, Tolth was able to find out where he was.
“The first time he came back in this white van, there was three Navajos in there,” said Tolth. “I called the Navajo PD, they stopped them, nothing happened. Along the line they picked up another individual, that’s when the police officer stopped them.”
It’s not known what happened after officers were able to stop the van, but Tolth’s brother had returned to the city. Eventually, Tolth retrieved him. He thought his brother would be in a legitimate rehabilitation facility, but it was a residence. Tolth was bewildered since, at the time, there was little to no information on the rehab scam, even though state authorities said they’d been investigating it for the past three years.
He said he notified Navajo police, criminal investigators and even the Federal Bureau of Investigation to no avail, so he is happy something is finally happening to address this scam.
“We are making sure we are catching them where they are and receiving them with resources and help,” said Branch, “helping them transition them to a safer, better place, whether that’s transitioning them to legitimate health care providers, we hope. I mean there is still no front-end regulations, but we’re moving them to new providers that have some level of diligence and are on a preferred list.”
Branch said the biggest challenge is trying to help those who have been misled into thinking they were going somewhere legitimate, safe and helpful, only to be taken advantage of. These people want to go home, and Branch said even after comments by the governor’s office, this process has seen some setbacks.
Hobbs said in May that her administration would prosecute bad actors, ensure wraparound services are delivered to the people affected by provider closure, and enact systemic reforms to the AHCCCS billing system to root out this type of fraudulent billing. She also said to families and victims of these facilities that “the state of Arizona believes” them, and is committed to working on solving this problem and get people home.
“We’re making sure those people do get home to their doorstep,” said Branch. “That was something that the governor’s staff said would happen, but unfortunately that’s not what we are seeing happen. They’re getting to the Greyhound station, which in many cases are in border towns, not a great place for a person struggling with addiction issues. We want to make sure people actually get to their homes, to their families. Our folks doing transport are delivering people to their doorstep and handing them off to their family members.”
This story was originally published in the AZ Republic and is reprinted with permission.