Oregon — The Oregon Health Authority last September quietly terminated putative substance abuse treatment provider and alleged gangster-housing Uplifting Journey LLC’s ability to receive payments from the state’s Medicaid program, called the Oregon Health Plan, according to records and OHA confirmation obtained recently by Oregon Roundup Foundation.
OHA notified Uplifting Journey of the termination September 24, 2025, the day after State Rep. Ed Diehl (R-Scio) demanded OHA investigate the company based on Oregon Roundup Foundation’s exclusive coverage.
Our reporting disclosed that between April 2024 and March 2025, OHA had directly reimbursed Uplifting Journey $2.3 million for substance abuse counseling while the company housed in a Lake Oswego residence two men Washington prosecutors allege kidnapped, tortured, robbed and attempted to murder a Seattle area woman. The $2.3 million in payments identified by Oregon Roundup likely represents a fraction of the total payments made by Oregon to Uplifting Journey; some 90% of the state’s Medicaid payments occur via Coordinated Care Organizations, which are immune from public records laws. The CCO that would have been the intermediary between OHA and Uplifting Journey has failed to respond to repeated requests for information from Oregon Roundup Foundation.
King County prosecutors allege Kevin Sanabria Ojeda and second unnamed man lived in Uplifting Journey’s Lake Oswego house, which the company told neighbors was a sober living house for people struggling with addiction, traveled to the Seattle area in January 2025 and kidnapped a woman, drilled her hand with a power drill to obtain access to her bank account, and shot and left her for dead in the snow on Snoqualmie Pass east of Seattle. Prosecutors say Ojeda and the unidentified man are members of the Venezuelan Tren de Aragua gang, and in the United States illegally.
An August visit to the residence and Uplifting Journey’s office in Portland showed the company had closed its operations in both locations. Subsequent reporting by Oregon Roundup Foundation showed a lease for a separate Uplifting Journey “sober living house,” located in Gresham, was co-signed by a pastor indicted for laundering $5 million from an Arizona Medicaid fraud scheme.
In his letter dated September 23, 2025, Diehl, now a Republican candidate for Governor, called reporting on Uplifting Journey “deeply troubling,”
The people of Oregon – particularly our most vulnerable citizens who depend on Medicaid for care – deserve better stewardship of their tax dollars and stronger protections from fraud. This case has shaken public confidence and highlights the urgent need for independent oversight.
The next day, OHA terminated Uplifting Journey as a Medicaid provider, the recently received documents show.
OHA’s disclosure follows the U.S. House Committee on Energy and Commerce demand last week records and information from Oregon Governor Tina Kotek and state agencies about the state’s efforts “if any” to combat Medicaid fraud in the state. The Committee’s letter refers to Diehl’s letter, and Oregon Roundup Foundation’s reporting, on Uplifting Journey and related companies.
On December 30, OHA also terminated the Medicaid enrollment of Life Restoration Missions, LLC, owned by a man going by the name “Julius Maximo,” who is also listed as an owner of Uplifting Journey. Oregon Roundup Foundation’s reporting identified Maximo as a common owner between the two companies last fall. In May 2025, an OHA analyst in an internal email identified Uplifting Journey, Life Restoration Missions and other companies tied to Maximo as “shell game-like entities” that were “confusing, circuitous and worthy of scrutiny.”
Uplifting Journey and Life Restoration Missions remained eligible for Medicaid reimbursements for months after the analyst’s warning.
Reposted with permission from Oregon Roundup
https://open.substack.com/pub/oregonroundup/p/oregon-ended-uplifting-journey-payments
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