Arizona clinic owner sentenced to 14 years for $69 million Native American Medicaid fraud
Rita Ntusa Anagho, a 54-year-old licensed nurse practitioner from San Tan Valley, Arizona, owned and operated Tusa Integrated Clinic, LLC, which fraudulently billed Arizona's Medicaid program (AHCCCS) more than $69 million for addiction treatment services between May 2022 and March 2023, of which AHCCCS paid approximately $54.9 million. Anagho and her co-conspirators specifically targeted Native American patients enrolled in Arizona's American Indian Health Program, which reimburses at a higher rate, and paid illegal kickbacks to sober home operators for patient referrals. She pleaded guilty in May 2025 to conspiracy to commit wire fraud and health care fraud and was sentenced in September 2026 to 14 years in federal prison.
- Year
- 2025
- Where
- United States
- Outcome
- Sentenced
- Reported loss
- $54.9 million
- Victims
- Not stated in the sources
- Schemes
- Sober living home and patient brokering fraud
- Last reviewed
- 2026-09-23
The facts, as recorded
- Anagho submitted false claims to AHCCCS for purported addiction treatment services that were either not provided at all or not provided as billed, causing the program to pay approximately $54.9 million of the more than $69 million billed.
- Anagho and her co-conspirators paid illegal kickbacks to owners of local sober homes in exchange for referring patients to Tusa Integrated Clinic.
- The scheme specifically targeted patients enrolled in the American Indian Health Program, a part of AHCCCS that reimburses behavioral health claims at a higher rate.
- Court records describe forged medical records created to obstruct a subpoena during the investigation into the clinic's billing.
- Anagho pleaded guilty in May 2025 to conspiracy to commit wire fraud and health care fraud.
- She was sentenced on 17 September 2026 to 14 years in federal prison, and ordered to pay nearly $55 million in restitution.
- Roughly $9.5 million was forfeited from seven bank accounts she controlled, along with almost $7 million in real estate.
- U.S. Attorney Timothy Courchaine: "Ms. Anagho's scheme manipulated a program that was intended to help Native Americans in Arizona."
- Assistant Attorney General Colin M. McDonald: if you take advantage of vulnerable populations to steal from the American taxpayer, you will pay the price.
Why this case matters
This is the largest single sentencing to come out of Arizona’s sober living Medicaid fraud scandal so far, and it shows the full structure in one operation: a licensed clinician exploiting a program built to help Native American patients, kickbacks to the sober homes that supplied those patients, and tens of millions of dollars paid out before anyone caught it.
A licensed provider, not an outsider
Unlike some patient-brokering cases built around unlicensed operators, Anagho was a licensed nurse practitioner running a clinic that, on paper, looked like a legitimate provider enrolled with AHCCCS. That licensing is exactly what let the fraud reach $69 million in billed claims before it was stopped, a reminder that a provider’s credentials alone do not confirm the treatment behind a bill actually happened.
Obstruction on top of the underlying fraud
According to court records, Anagho did not simply stop at the billing fraud: when investigators subpoenaed records, she is alleged to have created forged medical documentation to obstruct the inquiry, conduct that, as in other large fraud cases, tends to lengthen a sentence once it is admitted or proven.
The caveat
Anagho pleaded guilty and was sentenced by a federal court; the facts above come from the Department of Justice’s own published account of her admissions and the court’s sentence, not from unproven allegations. Statements about her co-conspirators’ conduct reflect the same guilty-plea record unless otherwise noted.
People named in the public record
- Rita Ntusa Anagho · convicted
Sources
- Arizona Addiction Treatment Clinic Owner Sentenced to 14 Years in Prison for Leadership Role in $69M Medicaid Fraud Scheme. US Department of Justice, Office of Public Affairs. Accessed 2026-09-23. Supports: The scheme's structure, the $69 million billed and $54.9 million paid, the targeting of American Indian Health Program patients, the kickbacks to sober home operators, the guilty plea, the sentence, restitution and forfeiture figures, and both official quotes.
- Arizona addiction treatment clinic owner sentenced in $69M fraud scheme. AZFamily / 3 On Your Side (Phoenix). Accessed 2026-09-23. Supports: Anagho's age and hometown, the forged medical records used to obstruct a subpoena, and additional detail on the forfeited bank accounts and real estate.