Oregon lawmaker calls for investigation into potential Medicaid fraud he says is linked to attempted murder
An Oregon lawmaker called Tuesday for state and federal investigations into possible Medicaid fraud and state oversight failures at a Lake Oswego addiction treatment center.
Rep. Ed Diehl, R-Stayton, cited reporting by Oregon Roundup, a Substack site run by Oregon-based writer Jeff Eager, that said an Oregon addiction recovery provider received more than $2.3 million in Medicaid reimbursements in less than a year to operate what Eager asserted was a halfway house that saw frequent police activity.
Diehl alleged the Lake Oswego halfway house was racked by crime and home to a person now charged with assault and attempted murder of a Washington woman.
According to public records Eager obtained, Uplifting Journey, LLC received $2,317,496 in Medicaid reimbursements between April 2024 and March 2025 for providing addiction recovery services under the Oregon Health Plan, the state’s Medicaid program that serves 1.4 million low income individuals and people with disabilities.
Most Medicaid payments in Oregon don’t come directly from the Oregon Health Authority but are authorized by a coordinated care organization such as Health Share of Oregon or Trillium Community Health Plan, which both oversee delivery of Medicaid services in Lake Oswego.
Uplifting Journey, founded in 2023, operated a halfway house in Lake Oswego that police visited 17 times between 2024 and 2025, according to reporting by The Post Millenial. Oregon Roundup reported that Medicaid payments to Uplifting Journey stopped in March, three days after a man accused of attempted murder in Seattle may have lived at the halfway house or was present at the premises.
In February, prosecutors in Seattle charged Kevin Daniel Sanabria Ojeda, 24, with kidnapping, robbery and attempted murder and said he lived at the halfway house in Lake Oswego.
Diehl called on the Oregon Department of Justice’s Medicaid Fraud Unit and the U.S. Health and Human Services Office of Inspector General to investigate Uplifting Journey for possible Medicaid fraud, audit Oregon’s oversight processes and recover any misspent funds.
The Oregon Health Authority and Oregon Department of Justice’s Medicaid Fraud Unit did not immediately respond to questions for comment Tuesday.
