Arizona’s Medicaid agency is a “completely new” organization one year after a humanitarian crisis caused by massive fraud was announced to the public, its leader said Thursday.
Carmen Heredia, cabinet executive officer for the state’s Medicaid agency, said the organization has hired more staff, added an identification tool for providers, launched a public awareness warning campaign, added new prepayment reviews for fee-for-service claims and has made “dozens of policy and practice changes in the past year” to prevent future fraud and harm to patients, Heredia told reporters.
“We have really reformed the agency,” said Heredia, who assumed the lead position at the agency in January 2023. “We’ve tackled the bulk of the problem, we really have.”
The agency on Thursday planned to launch a web page with information and updates about the fraud: https://azahcccs.gov/SoberLivingFraud
Heredia on May 16, 2023, joined Arizona Gov. Katie Hobbs, state Attorney General Kris Mayes, plus multiple other state, federal and tribal agencies to announce they were investigating what’s believed to be the largest Medicaid fraud in state history.