Kentucky addiction provider seeks client and staff accounts amid fraud allegations

Reporters from the Lexington Herald-Leader and ProPublica are inviting current and former clients and staff of Addiction Recovery Care (ARC) to share their experiences regarding the organisation’s treatment of individuals seeking sobriety. The callout seeks to guide further reporting into how the provider treated those seeking help, following a series of investigations into its operational conduct.

The request for submissions follows a previous investigation published in April, which detailed allegations that ARC allegedly used staff to falsely bill Kentucky Medicaid for millions of dollars. ARC has denied these allegations. The newsrooms state that the incoming accounts will help ensure the reporting understands the issues from all sides, with a particular focus on the perspectives of clients and staff who worked closely with them.

Journalists from both outlets began hearing troubling stories from former clients and staff in 2023. Over the last three years, they have spoken with dozens of individuals connected to ARC, which was once Kentucky’s largest residential addiction treatment service provider. The current phase of the investigation aims to deepen the understanding of the care environment within the organisation.

Submissions can be made via a brief online form or by emailing Lexington Herald-Leader reporter Alex Acquisto. The newsrooms emphasise that they take privacy seriously and will only contact individuals if they wish to publish parts of their story. The resulting reporting may take several weeks or months to complete.

While the newsroom states it will read all submissions, it notes that it may not be able to follow up with everyone. The gathered accounts will serve to guide the project, though the extent to which individual submissions will be published remains at the discretion of the reporting team.