The Arizona Attorney General’s Office has indicted more than 100 people for participating in Medicaid fraud through a sober living homes scandal, which has cost the state an estimated $2.8 billion.
Starting around 2019, scammers running fraudulent sober living homes charged the state’s Medicaid agency for treatment services they never provided and held victims against their will.
According to Democratic Attorney General Kris Mayes’ spokesperson Richie Taylor, her office has convicted 25 people for Medicaid fraud and recovered $140 million in cash and assets.
Taylor said some of the cases are connected.
Mayes criticized Senate Republicans on Thursday for not approving a director for the state’s Medicaid agency, the Arizona Health Care Cost Containment System (AHCCCS).
“It’s certainly not helpful when the legislature - Republicans in the legislature — refuse to confirm the governor’s appointees,” Mayes said. “Especially when they are working on such critical issues as this, including where we need to save lives.”
This week Carmen Heredia, Democratic Gov. Katie Hobbs’ pick to lead AHCCCS, resigned. She stated the GOP-led confirmation process has become too politicized.
Sen. Jake Hoffman (R-Queen Creek) leads the Senate agency in charge of vetting Hobbs’ nominees. He accused Heredia of allowing failures, mismanagement and fraud, and referred to a court case that found AHCCCS improperly issued long-term care contracts.
Hoffman also criticized Heredia for the way AHCCCS cracked down on Medicaid fraud. He claimed legitimate care providers were cut off by AHCCCS unfairly due to new policies the agency implemented to curb fraud.
Mayes pushed back on that statement:
“It’s absurd, and it's 180 degrees in the wrong direction. If anything, we need to be more aggressive in cutting off these bad actors and prosecuting these bad actors. And for Jake Hoffman to suggest otherwise just demonstrates his ignorance, so no, we’re not going to let up, we’re going to continue to prosecute the bad actors, we’re going to shut down illegitimate sober living facilities and these facilities need to learn to do it the right way,” she said.
Mayes called for lawmakers not to “stand in the way” of letting agency leaders go through confirmation and to “stop obstructing” their ability to handle the fraud mitigation.
