The Arizona Attorney General’s Office said Thomas Heard collected $34 million over 19 months, including through claims involving dead patients and toddlers.
Police officers serving a search warrant at a suburban Phoenix mansion expressed disbelief as they walked through the property filled with signs of extravagant spending.
“I’ve never seen anything like this in my life,” one officer said in footage released by the Arizona Attorney General’s Office, “this is movie stuff."
Inside a large home theater, an officer compared the room to the size of his former apartment.
The footage was released following the prosecution of Thomas Heard, 47, in a Medicaid fraud case. Arizona Attorney General Kris Mayes said Heard submitted claims for services that could not have been provided.
“He billed the state for patients who were already dead,” Mayes said. “He billed for children — toddlers — for alcohol dependence treatment that they could never receive.”
The attorney general’s office told the court that Heard fraudulently collected roughly $34 million over 19 months. Prosecutors said he bought a mansion, 40 luxury vehicles, Rolex watches and designer clothing.
A collage of items purchased by Medicaid fraudster. (Arizona Attorney General's Office)Meanwhile, people Heard claimed to provide with addiction support services lived in squalor, according to the attorney general’s office.
Mayes said Heard saw vulnerable people seeking help, people attempting to remain in recovery and families trusting the treatment system as a “money-making opportunity.”
Heard pleaded guilty to solicitation and conspiracy to commit fraudulent schemes and was sentenced to two years in prison and seven years of probation. A restitution hearing is scheduled for Aug. 21.
Part of a broader sober living fraud crisis
The Heard case is part of a wider fraud crisis involving sober living homes and addiction treatment services in Arizona.
Hundreds of people have been prosecuted in schemes estimated to have cost the state at least $2.5 billion in Medicaid funds over several years.
“I’ve called it the greatest scandal in Arizona state government history,” Mayes said.
Arizona Attorney General Kris Mayes (Arizona Attorney General's Office)Mayes said many of the schemes largely avoided detection for years under her predecessor. Arizona will likely be unable to recover most of the money that was stolen.
The attorney general told Spotlight on America preventing similar schemes will require investments in prosecutors and technology capable of identifying suspicious claims before large payments are made.
“You’ve got to spend some money, right, to do the accountability,” Mayes said. “You’ve got to fund prosecutors’ offices to go after this fraud. It doesn’t solve itself magically. These are big, big, multibillion-dollar programs.”
Mayes said offices such as hers could take on more fraud with additional prosecutors, updated fraud-detection technology and tools using artificial intelligence to flag potentially suspicious claims.
Victims left homeless, missing or dead
The consequences of the schemes extended beyond the loss of taxpayer money.
Most of the victims were Native Americans who sought treatment for alcohol dependency. Some later became addicted to hard drugs, and some died. Many remain missing as their families continue searching for them.
Others were left homeless after fraudsters exhausted their Medicaid benefits without providing the promised sober living services.
Turtle Island Women Warriors is among the groups working in the community to assist people experiencing homelessness and victims of the sober living schemes. The organization also helps families attempting to reunite with missing relatives.
On the same day Heard was sentenced, Mayes’ office announced 42 additional indictments involving alleged health care fraud.
“We will charge them and we will hold them accountable,” Mayes said.
Watch: The National News Desk’s documentary, “Robbing Us Blind: America’s Fraud Crisis"
