TRAFFICKED

TO

TREATMENT

WHAT HAPPENED 

THE IMPACT

THE SOLUTION

WHAT HAPPENED?

 Overview of the Medicaid Fraud Scheme


Fraudulent sober living homes and facilities targeted Native Relatives

What Happened?

  • Promised housing, food & treatment
  • Trafficked relatives into unsafe "homes"
  • Billed AHCCCS for services never provided
  • Exploited the American Indian Health Plan

📍 Arizona-Specific: Outpatient Billing Fraud (2019–2026)

🔎 What’s happening in Arizona

Arizona has become a national hotspot for outpatient fraud, especially in:

Behavioral health / rehab services

Sober living homes

Medicaid (AHCCCS) billing

The crisis is widely known as the Arizona Medicaid sober living fraud scheme

Targets Native American individuals and vulnerable populations

Recruits people across state lines

Bills for services never provided or medically unnecessary

State response:

Arizona Health Care Cost Containment System (AHCCCS) has:

Suspended hundreds of providers

Cut off fraudulent billing networks

Arizona Attorney General's Office has:

Filed criminal charges

Investigated patient brokering and exploitation

📊 Scale in Arizona (Key Figures)

$2+ billion in suspicious Medicaid billing flagged since 2019

300+ providers suspended (many tied to outpatient behavioral services)

Thousands of Native patients affected or displaced

Fraud concentrated in:

Phoenix metro

Maricopa County

Cross-border recruitment routes (NM, AZ, tribal lands)

👉 Important reality:

Much of this fraud is outpatient billing-based, making it harder to detect and easier to scale.


Arizona Medicaid / Outpatient Fraud Growth


$2B+ |                          ████

$1.5B|                       ███████

$1B  |                    ███████

$500M|              ██████

$100M|        ████

  $0  _____|_____|_____|_____|_____

       2019  2021  2022  2023  2025


Systemic failures

&

red flags missed

System Failure

“Arizona allowed outpatient behavioral health billing to scale without adequate oversight—creating a system that could be exploited at the billion-dollar level.”

Targeting Native Communities

“This crisis disproportionately impacts Native American people, who are being recruited, displaced, and exploited for profit.”

Fraud = Human Harm

“This is not just billing fraud—this is human trafficking tied to healthcare dollars.”

Outpatient Billing is the Weak Point

“Outpatient services—especially behavioral health—are the easiest system to manipulate because services are harder to verify.”

Enforcement is Reactive

“Providers were allowed to bill for years before action was taken. By the time suspensions happen, the damage is already done.”

Ongoing Crisis

“Even after shutdowns, victims are still here—homeless, missing, or trying to return home without support.”


Empowering & Educating Tribal commuities

👉 Sharp increase aligns with:

Expansion of behavioral health billing

Loosening oversight during COVID

Growth of sober living + outpatient networks

🧭 Ground-Level Needs (From Outreach Work)

Safe return pathways for displaced individuals

Real-time tracking & accountability for patient placement

Culturally competent care for Native communities

Emergency housing when fraudulent providers shut down

Stronger verification of outpatient billing claims

ðŸŠķ Closing Statement

“In Arizona, outpatient billing fraud has evolved into a system that profits off vulnerable people—especially our Native relatives. What we are seeing on the ground is not just fraud, but displacement, exploitation, and a humanitarian crisis happening in plain sigh


Grassroots response & advocacy

Turtle Island Women Warriors

continue to advocate for the unsheltered. continue to GATHER information and REPORT displaced victims, missing relatives and deceased relatives on a daily basis.

  • We field hundred of calls from families searching for missing relatives.
  • Turtle Island Women Warriors moved beyond direct outreach to focus more heavily on public awareness and community education about the fraud.
  • Providing guidance, coordination and referrals to assist in search efforts and safe recovery
  • Educating communities on warning signs, recruitment tactics, and how individuals are targeted and trafficked.


dATA cOLLECTION

Turtle Island Women Warriors Leadership Team with its volunteer's field hundreds of calls from families searching for missing relatives. 

Contact US

BOOTS ON THE GROUND OUTREACH

  • THIS SUMMER 2026

This summer, Turtle Island Women Warriors will focus exclusively on hydration outreach, distributing bottles of water and hydration packets.



devastating consequences for American Indian Communities

Estimated 2000+ Native Americans deceased or unaccounted for after being trafficked to fraudulent facilities.



Victims faced neglect, abuse and squalor living conditions without treatment of any kind.



Strain on tribal resource and services as families search for missing loved ones with support returning victims to their tribal reservations.

Turtle Island Women Warriors Leadership Team and its Volunteers have assisted THOUSANDS of beneficiaries through local outreach distributions and transportation back home to tribal lands.


February 2022 to October 2025

  • Assisted less than 100 families out of Arizona in travels with Plane Tickets to: Alaska, Montana including North & South Dakota.
  • Assisted over $30,000 of our own funds to assist relatives home 
  • Summer & Fall Seasons over 5k care packages distributed and over 1000 bus passes for local Phoenix Zip Codes. (Since the implementation of New Valley Metro Bus Pass System, local bus passes have been at halt of assisting).


Investing in legitimate treatment infrastructure

Allocating funds to expand access with evidence-based, culturally responsive substance abuse and mental health services on tribal lands to support training and professional development for Native Behavioral health workers. Building long term treatment capacities and partnerships with reputable providers to establish best practices for service native clients with cultural humility could help avoid humanitarian issues within American Indigenous Communities.

Strengthening oversight

enforcement

To EDUCATE our communities and provide RESOURCES to those affected by this fraud. Turtle Island Women Warriors will continue to SHINE a light and bring JUSTICE for our NATIVE RELATIVES!

implement

Regular audits and enhanced data analysis to identify billing irregularities and suspicious provider networks.


Educate our communities and provide resources to those affected by this fraud. A small shine of light to bring justice for our American Indian Relatives and the unfortunately silenced.

Investigate

prosecute

&

Enforce

Increase funding with its resources for investigating and prosecuting AHCCCS fraud and patient brokering schemes as there is already State Laws on the books for patient brokering and referrals to unlicensed homes.

communicate

&

coordinate

Improve communication and coordination between state agencies and tribal authorities.


Direct Coordination with one-on-one communication with Installed Taskforce Agencies and Other Trusted Organizations to create a networking database to better access up to date data.