(NewsNation) — A Native American woman who checked into a sober living home to get clean is now the lead plaintiff in a class-action lawsuit accusing the state of Arizona of enabling a Medicaid fraud scheme that attorneys say has harmed as many as 7,000 Native Americans and left possibly 2,000 dead or missing.
Randi Lynn Honyumptewa was staying at a facility in Phoenix’s gated Western Enclave community, one of roughly 20 licensed group homes packing into a single neighborhood, according to the lawsuit filed in Maricopa County Superior Court.
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On Christmas Eve in 2022, while detoxing from an alcohol binge, a staff member gave her a pill to “help her feel better.” It was fentanyl.
“She said, ‘I don’t feel good.’ The house manager walks up, says, ‘Take this.’ She takes the pill; its fentanyl,” John Brewer said, one of the attorneys representing Honyumptewa. “She goes into cardiac arrest, lack of oxygen to the brain.”
The lawsuit says Honyumptewa suffered a traumatic brain injury that left her unable to walk or swallow. She requires a feeding tube and 24-hour care for the rest of her life, the complaint says.
What does lawsuit say happened inside Arizona sober living homes?
Under Arizona’s American Indian Health Program, registered providers can bill Medicaid directly for addiction and behavioral health services delivered to eligible Native American patients…