Montana Auditor Halts $5M Fraudulent Payouts by Health Insurer

Michael Foth | Mix 97.1 | July 21, 2026 A second health insurance company doing business in Montana has been caught up in a massive fraud scheme that allegedly targeted Native American communities, according to State Auditor and Commissioner of Securities and Insurance James Brown. Brown announced this week that his office helped stop more than $5 million in questionable insurance payouts by Mountain Health Co-Op. The company is the second insurer affected by what investigators describe as a sophisticated operation that exploited federal Affordable Care Act (Obamacare) enrollment rules intended to benefit tribal members. According to the Auditors Office, the scheme convinced Native Americans to drop their Medicaid coverage before enrolling them in Affordable Care Act plans using false information. Victims were then transported to out-of-state addiction treatment centers, where insurers were allegedly billed for treatment that either never happened, wasnt medically necessary, or was grossly inflated. To read the full article, click HERE . Please give us your feedback! Please let us know how we could improve this article.