Arizona clinic owner receives prison sentence for massive Medicaid fraud scheme.
An Arizona addiction treatment clinic owner has been sentenced to 14 years in federal prison after admitting to a large Medicaid fraud scheme that prosecutors said involved more than $69 million in false claims. Rita Ntusa Anagho, 54, of San Tan Valley, owned and operated Tusa Integrated Clinic, an addiction treatment center that billed Arizona’s Medicaid agency, known as the Arizona Health Care Cost Containment System (AHCCCS). According to court records and the U.S. Department of Justice, the clinic submitted more than $69 million in claims between May 2022 and March 2023 for addiction treatment services that were either never provided or were not delivered as billed. AHCCCS paid about $54.9 million on those claims.
Prosecutors said the scheme focused heavily on Native American patients enrolled in the American Indian Health Care Program, a Medicaid program that paid higher rates than other AHCCCS plans. Anagho and others allegedly sought out patients covered by that program because of the higher reimbursement rates.
The case involved more than false billing, too. According to the Department of Justice (DOJ), Anagho and people working with her also paid illegal kickbacks to owners of sober living homes in exchange for sending patients to the clinic. Treatment records were then changed or created to make it appear that services had been provided. The government also accused Anagho of taking...
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