55 min
Thursday, June 1, 2023 – Massive treatment fraud targeted Arizona’s Native residents Native America Calling
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- News
Arizona officials are still sorting out the details of what they say is among the biggest and costliest fraud scandals in state history. The scheme targeted Native people and involved billing for sham treatment services. Some residents were literally taken off the street and held against their will at fake treatment centers. Officials say the operators of the fraud bilked Arizona’s Medicaid system of some $100 million over several years. Tribal officials in the state say hundreds of their citizens were harmed and some remain missing.
GUESTS
Ethel Branch (Diné), attorney general of the Navajo Nation
Darren Thompson (Lac du Flambeau Ojibwe), reporter for Native News Online
Elizabeth Bryant (citizen of the Cherokee Nation), psychiatric nurse practitioner
Reva Stewart (Diné), grassroots advocate with the #StolenPeopleStolenBenefits campaign
Coleen Chatter (Diné), grassroots advocate with the #StolenPeopleStolenBenefits campaign
Arizona officials are still sorting out the details of what they say is among the biggest and costliest fraud scandals in state history. The scheme targeted Native people and involved billing for sham treatment services. Some residents were literally taken off the street and held against their will at fake treatment centers. Officials say the operators of the fraud bilked Arizona’s Medicaid system of some $100 million over several years. Tribal officials in the state say hundreds of their citizens were harmed and some remain missing.
GUESTS
Ethel Branch (Diné), attorney general of the Navajo Nation
Darren Thompson (Lac du Flambeau Ojibwe), reporter for Native News Online
Elizabeth Bryant (citizen of the Cherokee Nation), psychiatric nurse practitioner
Reva Stewart (Diné), grassroots advocate with the #StolenPeopleStolenBenefits campaign
Coleen Chatter (Diné), grassroots advocate with the #StolenPeopleStolenBenefits campaign
55 min