OR ignores possible Medicaid fraud
Oregon Health Authority spokesperson won't say whether agency probing $2.3 million payments to vanished company that housed alleged Venezuelan gang members/attempted murderers and hand-drillers
The state agency that paid $2.3 million in Medicaid reimbursements in less than a year to a now-shuttered Oregon company that operated a Lake Oswego halfway house that housed two men prosecutors allege were members of Venezuelan drug and human trafficking gang Tren de Aragua and kidnapped, drilled the hands of, and attempted to murder a Seattle woman in January, would not say whether it is investigating the propriety of those payments.
Last month, Oregon Roundup exclusively reported the Medicaid payments made by Oregon Health Authority to Uplifting Journey LLC. In a follow-up article, OR reported Uplifting Journey LLC’s Portland office appeared abandoned and neighbors of the company’s former Lake Oswego halfway said they observed multiple ambulance visits, large numbers of people coming and going and motorcycle time trials on residential Bonita Road in the affluent and normally quiet Portland suburb.
The Post Millenial reported Lake Oswego police responded to calls 17 times to the house on reports of a young woman screaming from the property at night and other concerns that arose while Uplifting Journey operated the property as a halfway house.
Officers arrested one of the alleged gang members, Kevin Daniel Sanabria-Ojeda, of Venezuela, a resident of the house on Bonita Road in Lake Oswego, January 30, on charges of taking part in the kidnapping, torture and attempted murder and robbery of a Seattle woman January 21, 2025.
King County, WA prosecutors allege Sanabria-Ojeda and associates, one of whom also allegedly lived in the Uplifting Journey house, kidnapped Maria Guadalupe Hernandez Velasquez outside her Seattle home, drilled into her hands with a power drill to force her to provide them her PIN for her debit card, robbed her of gold and cash, shot and wounded her and left her for dead in rural Washington. Hernandez, as the victim is identified in charging documents, survived after crawling to safety.
Following Oregon Roundup’s reporting, I asked Oregon Health Authority spokesperson Amy Bacher to comment on three issues, presented as follows:
Is OHA, or to OHA’s knowledge any government agency, investigating or in any way “looking into” the payments to Uplifting Journey for potential fraud or other irregularities?
Why did OHA produce to me Uplifting Journey’s Provider Enrollment Agreement and related documents only after I told OHA a legislator had learned from the CCO that OHA should have such a document. OHA previously told me it had no certification or agreement of any kind with Uplifting Journey.
Any other comments from OHA about this situation in which the agency reimbursed over $2.3 million in Medicaid funds in less than a year to a now apparently defunct LLC that operated a halfway house allegedly occupied by two Tren de Aragua drug gang members, one of whom faces charges in Washington for allegedly kidnapping, torturing, robbing and trying to murder a woman?
(CCO is Coordinated Care Organization, which in some instances handle some of the administration of Medicaid reimbursements. The Provider Enrollment Agreement is between OHA and Uplifting Journey, entitling the company to receive Medicaid reimbursements. OHA initially told me it did not have such a document but later produced it to me, after I informed OHA a legislator had inquired with the CCO, which is not subject to public records laws).
The following is Ms. Bacher’s response to my questions, in full:
(I originally told Ms. Bacher I was planning to publish Monday, September 2. When that date was pushed back due to coverage of the gas tax special session, I informed Ms. Bacher about the delay and invited her to expand on her comments if she wished. She did not respond.)
The email badly misstates the history of my public records request, which I won’t belabor right now. At no point did I suggest anyone should discriminate against anyone for seeking health care. And while the alleged brutality and gang affiliation of Sanabria-Ojeda and his so-far anonymous roommate may reflect on Uplifting Journey, so does the fact that a man going by the name “Julius Maximo” formed the company shortly before it began receiving funds from Oregon, those funds stopped flowing and the Lake Oswego house was abandoned by Uplifting Journey soon after Sanabria-Ojeda was publicly charged with serious crimes, and the office it reported as its princpal place of business was empty by August of this year.
OHA has faced numerous challenges related to accountability, competence and transparency in recent years. The agency was held in contempt of court for failing to admit mentally ill defendants to the state hospital in 2025. It faced allegations of mishandling federal mental health grant money and a lack of transparency in financial oversight in 2023. It is currently the defendant in a pending lawsuit for allegedly withholding data on child sex change interventions, and faced criticism for failing to demonstrate results for millions spent on behavioral health initiatives as of August 2024.
OHA’s director, Sejal Hathi, who is a medical doctor, took a part-time, paid position at Stanford University’s teaching hospital earlier this year. OHA is the state’s second largest state agency, after the Department of Human Services.
Stay on it Mr. Eager. It has that certain whiff of, how shall I say it... incompetence with no accountability?
And donde es Senor Maximo. In the wind with the majority of the 2.3 I'll wager but hell that's the Oregon way. Free money, no accountability, no results, and no penalties except to the tax payer's and those poor unfortunates that actually need care. Progressive my ass.