Reporting Highlights
- Unrecognized Deaths: At least 40 Native residents of Phoenix-area sober living homes and treatment facilities died between the spring of 2022 and summer of 2024, amid a Medicaid fraud crisis.
- Unheeded Warnings: Republican and Democratic administrations failed to act on evidence the fraud was imperiling Native Americans whose care was paid for by the state’s Medicaid agency.
- Seeking Answers: Some of the victims’ families said authorities have yet to inform them how the fraud schemes ensnared their loved ones and contributed to their deaths.
These highlights were written by the reporters and editors who worked on this story.
At least 40 Native American residents of sober living homes and treatment facilities in the Phoenix area died as state Medicaid officials struggled to respond to a massive fraud scheme that targeted Indigenous people with addictions.
The deaths, almost all from drug and alcohol use, span from the spring of 2022 to the summer of 2024, according to a review of records from the Maricopa County Office of the Medical Examiner. Over half died as officials ignored calls to address lax oversight later shown to have contributed to thousands of patients being recruited into sham treatment programs.
Patients continued to die even after Arizona officials in May 2023 announced a sweeping investigation of hundreds of facilities. By then, the fraud was so widespread that officials spent the next year seeking to halt Medicaid reimbursements to behavioral health businesses accused of wrongdoing.
The state’s Medicaid agency, the Arizona Health Care Cost Containment System, acknowledged the fraud cost taxpayers as much as $2.5 billion. But it has not accounted publicly for the number of deaths tied to the scheme.
Many of the deaths in sober living homes reviewed by the Arizona Center for Investigative Reporting and ProPublica happened as officials — in
