PHOENIX — Months after a press conference where Arizona Attorney General Kris Mayes announced more than 100 accusations of fraud against Arizona's Health Care Cost Containment System, only a handful of indictments have been handed down.
Those providers were mostly behavioral health-care providers, billing under the Native American insurance program. They were ostensibly providing rehab services to Native Americans, though Mayes said in some cases those services were never provided. Mayes and Gov. Katie Hobbs held a joint news conference about the cases in May.
Since then, the list of providers suspended from billing AHCCCS because of allegations of fraud has expanded to more than 200. Each is accused of some sort of fraud, be it overbilling, double billing or even billing for dead patients.
But, despite the ever-growing list, 12News has only been able to find 38 indictments filed in relation to AHCCCS fraud.
A spokesperson for Mayes said those are the only indictments that are able to be released.
The indictments are mostly for financial crimes, like theft, illegal control of an enterprise, and fraudulent schemes. multiple defendants are listed in each of the four cases, which total 38 defendants.
However, most of those indictments came before Mayes even took office.
Twenty-eight of the 38 indictments were filed by former Attorney General Mark Brnovich.
Mayes filed 10 of them since taking office, but said last week that the investigations are continuing.
“We continue to investigate and prosecute the fraudulent behavioral health centers," Mayes said. "It continues, in my mind, to be one of the greatest scandals in Arizona governmental history."
Mayes said she hopes to recover "tens of millions of dollars" from the first round of indictments. If she's successful, she said she hopes to be able to funnel the money to trbial governments to fund real rehab programs.
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