CHARLOTTE — Several people struggling with addiction in Charlotte, who’ve flown to drug rehab centers in California, say that when they got there – they didn’t get the treatment they needed.
Authorities in North Carolina are now investigating the issue as potential fraud.
Tianna Evans and Ashley Hare were homeless and living in their car in Hickory, when they say a friend approached them about a better life more than 2,000 miles away in California.
“She asked us if we were ready and she got us plane tickets and flew us out there,” Evans tells Channel 9′s Dave Faherty.
“It did seem too good to be true, but at the same time I got tired of sleeping in my car each day,” Hare says.
Both women say they were told how to sign up so that Blue Cross and Blue Shield would pay for the flight and treatment. But when they got to California, they noticed immediate red flags.
“We get to the house they took us to and there was no food in the house – none,” Hare says.
Evans and Hare shared photos of where they lived in California, describing it as a “flop house.” They said when it came to their treatment, they never actually met with anyone.
“Our treatment was on a tablet, in group. You could literally log in, ‘hey this is Tianna,’ and put your tablet down,” Evans says.
And Evans and Hare weren’t alone. Lanie Sanders decided to go to California too. She says she struggled with a fentanyl addiction and wanted to get clean for her five-year-old son.
When Sanders got there, she says her treatment program was also online and she was moved in and out of five homes before being told to leave.
“The North Carolina insurance wasn’t covering treatment anymore and basically told us we had a day to figure out what we were doing and put us in the streets,” Sanders says.
Officials with the North Carolina Department of Insurance say they “had previous cases that were under investigation on this subject and the outcome is pending.” According to the NCDOI, the previous cases were based on information gathered by their criminal investigation division.
In 2020, the California Department of Insurance, along with the Orange County District Attorney’s Office, announced they had shut down a health care fraud ring that preyed on vulnerable substance abuse patients in order to bilk millions from insurance companies.
Evans and Hare are both living in Burke County now where they have jobs and have stayed clean, but don’t credit the drug rehab in California.
“I hated that I went out there. I would have done better just staying in my car,” Hare says.
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