Oregon ended Uplifting Journey payments after Diehl letter, Roundup reporting
Oregon Health Authority recently produced records showing the termination occurred last September, the day after State Rep. Ed Diehl demanded action based on Oregon Roundup reporting
The Oregon Health Authority last September quietly terminated putative substance abuse treatment provider and alleged gangster-housing Uplifting Journey LLC’s ability to receive payments from the state’s Medicaid program, called the Oregon Health Plan, according to records and OHA confirmation obtained recently by Oregon Roundup Foundation.
OHA notified Uplifting Journey of the termination September 24, 2025, the day after State Rep. Ed Diehl (R-Scio) demanded OHA investigate the company based on Oregon Roundup Foundation’s exclusive coverage.
Our reporting disclosed that between April 2024 and March 2025, OHA had directly reimbursed Uplifting Journey $2.3 million for substance abuse counseling while the company housed in a Lake Oswego residence two men Washington prosecutors allege kidnapped, tortured, robbed and attempted to murder a Seattle area woman. The $2.3 million in payments identified by Oregon Roundup likely represents a fraction of the total payments made by Oregon to Uplifting Journey; some 90% of the state’s Medicaid payments occur via Coordinated Care Organizations, which are immune from public records laws. The CCO that would have been the intermediary between OHA and Uplifting Journey has failed to respond to repeated requests for information from Oregon Roundup Foundation.
King County prosecutors allege Kevin Sanabria Ojeda and second unnamed man lived in Uplifting Journey’s Lake Oswego house, which the company told neighbors was a sober living house for people struggling with addiction, traveled to the Seattle area in January 2025 and kidnapped a woman, drilled her hand with a power drill to obtain access to her bank account, and shot and left her for dead in the snow on Snoqualmie Pass east of Seattle. Prosecutors say Ojeda and the unidentified man are members of the Venezuelan Tren de Aragua gang, and in the United States illegally.
An August visit to the residence and Uplifting Journey’s office in Portland showed the company had closed its operations in both locations. Subsequent reporting by Oregon Roundup Foundation showed a lease for a separate Uplifting Journey “sober living house,” located in Gresham, was co-signed by a pastor indicted for laundering $5 million from an Arizona Medicaid fraud scheme.
In his letter dated September 23, 2025, Diehl, now a Republican candidate for Governor, called reporting on Uplifting Journey “deeply troubling,”
The people of Oregon - particularly our most vulnerable citizens who depend on Medicaid for care - deserve better stewardship of their tax dollars and stronger protections from fraud. This case has shaken public confidence and highlights the urgent need for independent oversight.
The next day, OHA terminated Uplifting Journey as a Medicaid provider, the recently received documents show.
OHA’s disclosure follows the U.S. House Committee on Energy and Commerce demand last week records and information from Oregon Governor Tina Kotek and state agencies about the state’s efforts “if any” to combat Medicaid fraud in the state. The Committee’s letter refers to Diehl’s letter, and Oregon Roundup Foundation’s reporting, on Uplifting Journey and related companies.
On December 30, OHA also terminated the Medicaid enrollment of Life Restoration Missions, LLC, owned by a man going by the name “Julius Maximo,” who is also listed as an owner of Uplifting Journey. Oregon Roundup Foundation’s reporting identified Maximo as a common owner between the two companies last fall. In May 2025, an OHA analyst in an internal email identified Uplifting Journey, Life Restoration Missions and other companies tied to Maximo as “shell game-like entities” that were “confusing, circuitous and worthy of scrutiny.”
Uplifting Journey and Life Restoration Missions remained eligible for Medicaid reimbursements for months after the analyst’s warning.
Oregon Roundup Foundation created this article. ORF is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit corporation dedicated to covering Oregon political and government news. Media outlets are welcome to use this article for free with attribution of the author and Oregon Roundup Foundation. If your local news outlet isn’t carrying ORF articles, ask ‘em why.
Thank you very much for this update. Gives me another good reason to vote for Ed Diehl.
Thank you for the reporting. And it's so infuriating. On a personal note, I have worked my ass off, made a lot of coin, and paid way more than I think I should have in taxes to this fucking City. For 30 years. And after getting laid off in 2024, I got six months of unemployment and was then told to fuck off, there's no other help here, why can't you get a job you fucking loser? In other words, thank you for your taxpayer dollars to help everybody else, but when you, contributing member of society for 30 years, needs help, fuck off.
At 15 months without being able to get a job, and this is after over 100 applications and cover letters and Linkedin conversations and $11,000 in career coaching payments ... I actually was approved for Oregon Health Plan. And the amount of paperwork that I had to supply to prove that I had a bona fide need was shocking. And yet these corrupt motherfuckers who come into our country illegally, and yes I just said that and I'm not going to apologize for it, are given the free-ride keys on the back of what hard working people like me paid into the system for literally decades, and we cannot get it back out in help when we need a little hand up. Nooe. That help, paid for by people like me is going to illegal aliens, drug addicts, and other assholes who have not contributed to society, many who aren't even from here, and who expect help.
And they get it . Before I even do
I'm not even a Republican. I believe in a safety net. But this is going way too far. I am leaving the city so that it cannot get any more of my money. The city can go fuck itself. It gets no more of my money.