Insurance Commissioner: Tarot cards and scams used to ‘help’ North Dakotans with substance-use disorder

Promise of money, free flights, lures victims to fraudulent ‘recovery’ facilities

State Insurance Commissioner Jon Godfread warns that out-of-state scammers are luring North Dakotans to fraudulent ‘recovery’ facilities. Especially vulnerable are tribal communities and reservation residents seeking treatment for substance-use disorder, according to his agency.

“North Dakotans who are battling addiction should know that they are not alone, and reputable resources are available, ” Godfread said in his warning released Aug. 21. “These fraudulent programs are a cruel exploitation of individuals in some of their most vulnerable moments.”

They recruit individuals to unlicensed rehabilitation centers via social media and in person, personally profiting from billing insurance companies for services that participants never receive or are illegitimate. The North Dakota Insurance Department received a report that one so-called “counseling” session used tarot cards.

Recruiters offer to buy plane tickets, and sometimes pay stipends, for people to attend out-of-state facilities. City officials, treatment providers and sober living homes recalled multiple suspicious interactions taking place last fall.

Residents of Spirit Lake Reservation have experienced monthly waves of recruiters with suspicious credentials. This is part of an emerging trend nationwide, with similar reports in Florida, Oklahoma and Washington, noted Jacob Just, communications director for the state’s insurance department.

In January, reservation health officials in Fort Totten, N.D. began hearing reports of suspicious activity: Individuals were driving around housing units, promising money, a phone and food to participate in their California treatment program.

It is “alarming,” said Lakeisha Chaske, case manager at Spirit Lake Nation Recovery and Wellness Program, to know a group is making such exorbitant promises to a “vulnerable population for substance use.” 

Throughout 2024, recruiters have arrived regularly each month to “round people up” and arrange one-way flights to California facilities. They also advertise heavily on social media.

The Spirit Lake Nation Recovery and Wellness Program staff routinely receives telephone requests from people looking to connect with “the people from California.”

Staff warns callers about the dubious accreditation or licensing of these programs. But “at the end of the day, they’re grown adults and they’ll make their own decisions,” Chaske said.

She estimates that eight to 12 tribal members sign on each month.

Participants’ experiences vary widely. Some programs will not purchase flights back to North Dakota, stranding individuals who cannot afford to travel home.

“If somebody did want to come home,” Chaske emphasized. “I have no doubt our Council would support them in coming home, whether it’s financially or whatever is needed.”

Chaske knows of at least eight participants from Spirit Lake Nation, however, who continued on after the standard 90-day “treatment” program; they stay in sober-living homes operated by the recruiters.

“People who question them seem to have a bad experience,” she said. One participant reported being sent home early after asking for the operator’s license number, policies and procedures.

Recovery staff across the state recalled similar occurrences throughout the late summer and early fall of 2023.

In August 2023, the Bismarck sober-living home Blessed Builders accepted a visit from two out-of-state individuals. The visitors claimed they had participated in a California treatment program and wanted to fly people out there for services.

Later, an individual claiming to be the facility’s director contacted Blessed Builders Director Krystal Bloom by telephone and email, suggesting opportunities to “partner on a business level.” The individual never responded to Bloom’s Sept. 21 request for a more detailed explanation, she said. Bloom recalled the individual’s email domain name rang alarm bells as a personal Google account.

Bloom is concerned after losing contact with a woman who took a California flight seeking out-of-state medication-assisted treatment.

In October 2023, an organization posing as North Dakota’s Heartview Foundation contacted a patient on the treatment provider’s waitlist. The caller offered to pay the patient to receive services in California. “If it sounds too good to be true, it probably is,” emphasized Jennifer Greuel, Heartview’s communications director. The statewide provider has heard of no such incidents since.

Out-of-state solicitors approached staff at Grand Forks Housing Authority in early fall 2023. After multiple community partners reported similar suspicious interactions with people not locally known, the authority complained to the Grand Forks Police Department. Ultimately, officers identified nothing illegal and no one took further action.

Shutting down the operations often feels like a game of “whack-a-mole,” Just said. When one is shut down, another pops up to take its place. Facility operators and recruiters do not reciprocate efforts to communicate, Chaske said.

State officials urge individuals seeking substance use disorder treatment to contact a trusted healthcare provider or community-centered recovery groups. The state’s Department of Health and Human Services Behavioral Health Division offers additional resources.

“It’s very sad that this is happening to our community when there are resources available within the state,” Chaske said.

References:

Consumer warning on fraudulent rehabilitation centers, August 21, 2024, https://www.insurance.nd.gov/news/godfread-issues-warning-fraudulent-substance-use-treatment-centers