LOS ANGELES – Insurance company Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Oklahoma was awarded a consent judgment of $7.5 million on June 16. The judgment is the result of a civil case in the United States District Court in the Central District of California, Southern Division, filed on April 10, 2024, against Asana Recovery Inc., Beachfront Sober Living Inc., Asana Buy Sell Inc., and other defendants.
In the complaint, BCBSOK alleged that Asana Recovery Inc. recruited a Native American citizen and former patient as a “body broker.” This individual, identified in the complaint as KB, was paid kickbacks to locate potential patients for Asana.
In June 2023, KB contacted another member of the same tribe via social media who resided in Oklahoma and was suffering from substance use disorder.
After convincing the tribal member to enroll in Asana for treatment, the victim was flown to California at no charge. Upon arrival at the Asana facilities, the complaint alleges that the victim was stripped by Asana employees, who took the victim’s cell phone and personal belongings. The victim had originally agreed to stay at the facility for 30 days, but was then required to sign a 90-day agreement with Asana.
The complaint alleges that during the stay at the facility, the victim received substandard treatment. When they tried to leave, Asana would not return their clothes, personal belongings, or cellphone. Asana then forbade the victim from leaving.
Some time later, when the Asana staff were occupied, the victim was able to escape the facility. The victim found a person on the street nearby and used their cellphone to call for help.
The victim’s health benefits plan was issued by BCBSOK, which alleges that Asana billed the insurer thousands of dollars for fraudulent treatment. This instance is just an example of the broader insurance fraud scheme outlined in BCBSOK’s complaint.
According to BCBSOK:
To start the scheme, Asana had to find and induce patients into treatment. To do this, Asana paid kickbacks to body brokers to find and ship BCBSOK members from Oklahoma to California for “treatment,” paid active patients for phone numbers and “leads” for potential patients who might be in need of treatment, targeted potential patients with false sales pitches, and paid patients to provide “positive” online reviews in an effort to cover-up the deluge of negative reviews that were flooding online resources for those seeking SUD treatment.
Once enrolled, Asana provided minimal or non-existent treatment.
Oftentimes, treatment was overseen by other patients and/or individuals who were not licensed or qualified.
Like (the victim), many patients desired to leave when they realized treatment was not forthcoming. Because this would thwart the ability to bill insurance, Asana went to appalling lengths to stop patient departures, such as: cutting off phone access, refusing to return patient belongings, and – worst of all – refusing to provide patients their needed medications.
For other patients, Asana induced them to stay through “employment,” during which Asana often continued to bill for insurance, thereby obtaining free labor through insurance payments.
Once a patient completed detox treatment, Asana- in conjunction with Beachfront and Asana Buy Sell- provided free housing to induce patients to receive their “outpatient” treatments with Asana so insurance payments could continue to come in. The defendants here are the entities and individuals who spearheaded this scheme. For them, SUD treatment was just a cover for their ultimate prize: money. And they got a lot of it: over $10 million in ill-gotten gains from BCBSOK alone.
The $7.5 million judgment entered in the case is a consent judgment- the judge issued the order with the consent of all parties.
Using Asana social media posts from June 2023, Mvskoke Media identified KB as Kimberly Brave. On a June 12, 2023 Facebook post, Brave posted her Asana Recovery business card along with a solicitation for “family and friends” struggling with addiction to join the California program.
Brave is currently the Program Manager for Osage Nation Family Violence Prevention. Mvskoke Media contacted Brave with questions about her knowledge of the alleged fraud and recruitment tactics, but has not received a response as of publication.
Mvskoke Media also contacted Asana Recovery Inc. but did not receive a response.
Asana Recovery Inc. is still in operation.
Mvskoke Media has not found any criminal charges filed in relation to the fraud allegations.
On Jan 1, 2025, BCBSOK discontinued access to non-urgent, non-emergent out-of-state care for members of Blue Advantage PPO and Blue Preferred PPO, except for care in counties in Kansas, Colorado, New Mexico, Texas, Arkansas, and Missouri that border Oklahoma. However, members can obtain a waiver for out-of-state care, provided the care is not available in Oklahoma. Members must also receive the waiver before the care is administered for it to be covered.
The BCBSOK case is an example of an ongoing problem in Indian Country. One month prior to the events alleged in the BCBSOK complaint, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Office of the Inspector General issued a consumer alert about fraud schemes targeting vulnerable Native Americans in relation to behavioral health outpatient treatment centers.
“What we are witnessing in Los Angeles and Orange County is nothing short of a trafficking crisis targeting our people, and Muscogee (Creek) Nation citizens are among those being directly victimized.” – Hope Craig-Corlew
Mvskoke citizen Hope Craig-Corlew is the Board Chairwoman and President of United American Indian Involvement, Inc., a human services organization serving urban Native Americans in Los Angeles. In her role at UAII, Craig-Corlew shapes policies that affect Urban Native people and works in an advocacy role.
Craig-Corlew and the UAII have seen firsthand how victims of these frauds are left unhoused with little to no financial resources. “Our organization has been forced to repeatedly step in to provide emergency shelter and fund reunification efforts, transporting people back to their reservations or states of origin, using local housing budgets intended to serve our permanent Los Angeles Native community,” Craig-Corlew wrote in an email to Mvskoke Media.
“We have seen this happen during the holidays. We have seen it happen to couples. We have seen it happen to people who had no idea they were part of a fraud scheme until they had nothing left.”
According to Craig-Corlew, UAII has conducted an investigation into these frauds. As in the BCBSOK complaint, victims often have kinship or community ties to the body brokers. “Recruiters, often members of our own community, themselves victims who are being exploited and presented with these roles as career opportunities, are using social media platforms and word of mouth to lure Native American tribal members from states including Oklahoma and Arizona to Southern California,” Craig-Corlew detailed.
“They are promised free luxury addiction treatment. What they receive instead is placement into often unlicensed sober living homes and fraudulent ‘treatment facilities’ that exist for one purpose: to drain their insurance benefits, including Medicaid, through systematic billing fraud.”
The UAII identified over 30 rehabilitation facilities that appear to have been created to exploit this type of fraud. The results of the investigation were submitted to the FBI. UAII also contacted the California Department of Justice and continues to document individual cases and data on the ongoing multi-state fraudulent billing scheme.
To further raise awareness of the issue, UAII has met with the California Department of Social Services and the Muscogee (Creek) Nation Principal Chief David Hill.
According to Craig-Corlew, there has been little response. “In my view, the response from local, state, federal, and tribal law enforcement has been minimal, that’s precisely why we’re raising public awareness. We’re being targeted, and it feels like no one is taking it seriously,” Craig-Corlew wrote.
“What we are witnessing in the body brokering of our relatives and the abandonment of our children amounts to a modern form of self‑termination and erasure, a crisis that demands the Nation’s immediate and unequivocal attention.”
There are common tactics to the scams to be aware of. Craig-Corlew shared, “If someone contacts a Muscogee Nation citizen, through Facebook, through word of mouth, through any channel, offering free luxury addiction treatment in California, that is a red flag. The brokers are not strangers. They are often known to the community. They are our people, being used against our people. That is what makes this crisis so devastating and so urgent.”
Craig-Corlew stated that UAII has not received a formal response from the California DOJ or the MCN Attorney General’s office.
Mvskoke Media contacted the MCN Executive Branch, but Chief Hill declined to issue a statement at this time.
For anyone with information about these fraud schemes, contact the DHS Office of the Inspector General tip hotline at 1-800-HHS-TIPS (1-800-447-8477).
This article was written in collaboration with Meredith Johnson.
