Two regional Seventh-day Adventist conferences that oversee the activities of its member churches across several states have launched inquiries into an Aurora-based congregation tied to a Medicaid operation that exploited the homeless.
The Rocky Mountain Conference and the Central States Conference of the Seventh-day Adventist church — based in Denver and Kansas City, Kansas, respectively, and representing about 150 congregations in six states — said revelations that a newly created Aurora church was part of that enterprise were troubling.
A Denver Gazette investigation into “The Program” showed how the Maranatha Indonesian-American Seventh-day Adventist Church was connected to a home-health agency that over three years collected more than $24 million in Medicaid payments for allegedly providing services to dozens of homeless who were recruited to hire them.
The church’s involvement was providing $50 payments, dubbed “donations” by its payors, three times a week to each homeless person who allowed the agency, On Going Home Health Care, to administer prescription drugs they were given. The newspaper reported how many of the payments were made via electronic phone apps from people with ties to the church.
Ongoing HHC has since been suspended from additional Medicaid payments pending an investigation by state and federal agencies.
We are troubled and concerned by allegations raised by the news media involving individuals associated with the Maranatha Indonesian-American Church in Aurora, Colorado, a Seventh-day Adventist congregation,” said a statement emailed to The Denver Gazette by Pastor Trevor Barnes Jr., the communications director for the Central States Conference. “We take all accusations of fraud and mistreatment of the most vulnerable members of our community seriously.”
The statement noted the conferences have asked its larger unions that govern the church’s activities nationwide for help.
“The officials of the Central States Conference and the Rocky Mountain Conference of the Seventh-day Adventist Church, the local governing bodies, have begun an internal review and will evaluate the facts as they become known,” the statement read. “The Mid-America Union and North American Division of the Seventh-day Adventist Church are assisting the conferences through the process. We will provide updates as appropriate.”
The Aurora church was incorporated in 2024 and only recently began leasing space from a different denomination to hold its Saturday services. Its state corporate status has been listed as delinquent since February for not filing any required updated records.
The church inquiries are the latest in a growing number of investigations into the activities surrounding the Medicaid payments. The Denver Gazette reported the homeless were lured into The Program — the phrase used by employees at On Going and another affiliated nonprofit connected to the operation — with promises of additional cash payments as high as $500 for any successful referral of others who were also homeless.
Those referred to The Program were taken to a medical clinic in Aurora and examined by the same doctor — Dr. Arthur Ferrer — who then prescribed medications to them. The homeless were placed into one of about a half-dozen houses sprinkled across eastern Aurora and told they could live rent free but were dissuaded from finding a job, were not provided any social services, such as counseling or training, and threatened with eviction if they told anyone about the setup. Each was given $150 a week in payments that began as cash and eventually changed to gift cards.
Sources familiar with the operation say the gift card payments have stopped.
In return for the money and housing, participants were administered their prescriptions by workers for On Going HHC, which typically meant a quick check of temperature and blood pressure and counting out the necessary pills to be taken.
The Denver Gazette found connections between members of the church, its founders, the creators of the nonprofit overseeing the housing — Better Living Foundation — and the home health agency.
Efforts to reach church leadership on Monday were unsuccessful.
It’s unclear if all six houses identified by The Denver Gazette remain in operation, although several sources familiar with them said people appear to be living in them.
Two state agencies — the Department of Health Care Policy and Financing and the Department of Public Health and Environment — are investigating, as well as the FBI.
Medicare and Medicaid are federally funded programs that state agencies are charged with administering and overseeing. The program here is called Health First Colorado.
On Going HHC was suspended from additional Medicaid payments pending the outcome of the inquiries. The agencies said the suspension was the result of “credible” allegations of fraud, which included payments for services not provided.
Observations
Big public-money fraud schemes. This is similar to the massive daycare fraud in Minneapolis that was exposed in December of last year (Learing Center).
They both milk government programs (Medicaid-style or childcare/meal funds) by claiming services that aren’t really happening.
Both pull in vulnerable people or loose systems to rack up millions. Both got official probes once the stories broke. That’s the main overlap.
That a regional Adventist Church is allegedly involved in this type fraud is shocking. Or, is it?
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“Be sure your sin will find you out” (Numbers 32:23).
