This story was originally published by Daily Montanan.

Keila Szpaller
Daily Montanan

State Auditor and Commissioner of Insurance James Brown said this week his office has clawed back $37.3 million of nearly $55 million in wrongful billing identified by his office.

The total includes an additional $14 million in stopped payments through the Affordable Care Act since January 2026, according to a news release from his office.

In January, the Commissioner of Securities and Insurance Office announced it had helped stop a fraudulent multimillion dollar billing scheme preying on Native Americans on reservations.

A news release from his office Tuesday outlined the scheme. It said Obamacare, or the Affordable Care Act, allows tribal members to enroll year-round with no waiting period.

“Fraudulent out-of-state treatment providers abused this provision to convince members of Montana’s Native communities to disenroll from Medicaid;  enroll them in Obamacare using fake information;  transport them across state lines; and bill Montana insurance for treatments that never occurred, were inadequate, unnecessary, or at inflated costs,” the news release said.

The news release said Brown’s investigation determined that “body brokers” targeted homeless campsites on or near reservations, promising vulnerable people free “luxury” rehab, transportation, housing and cash incentives. Some victims were given alcohol or drugs during transport to keep compliant, his office said.

These victims were then kept in substandard conditions, moved between facilities, and abandoned far from home without resources to return, “potentially contributing to the scourge of missing and murdered indigenous persons,” the news release said.

Three members of the Montana Missing Indigenous Persons Task Force representing tribes in the state could not be reached for comment by voicemail on April 22. The task force is part of the Department of Justice, whose spokespeople did not respond to a request for comment.

Brown earlier said the investigation was conducted in cooperation with health insurers, tribal communities and law enforcement, and his office made referrals to federal law enforcement authorities in Montana and the FBI office in Los Angeles where alleged crimes took place.

Brown said his office identified $54.7 million in fraudulent claims and had secured $23.3 million in rescissions by January 2026. The news release said his office identified 207 suspected fraudulent insurance enrollments and rescinded 126 policies to date, up from 80 in January.

“These so-called treatment centers thought they could make a quick dollar off the back of Montana’s Native communities by taking advantage of gaps in local addiction treatment services, limited healthcare infrastructure on reservations, and the nature of Obamacare,” Brown said in a statement. “My office is working closely with tribal, state, and federal partners to put an end to this despicable and abusive con.”

The most recent news release from Brown’s office about the scheme provided warning signs: Unsolicited offers of treatment or recovery services; pressure to change or drop insurance coverage (for example from Medicaid to Obamacare); promises of free transportation to out-of-state facilities; and unfamiliar individuals with large vans visiting communities.

“Reputable centers never recruit patients in an unsolicited manner or offer incentives for signing up for insurance coverage,” the news release said.