Mindvalley Behavioral: Owner linked to multiple evictions, unlicensed sober living homes & AZDHS investigation
Mindvalley: Evictions, unlicensed homes, AHCCCS allegations
Phoenix's Mindvalley Behavioral Health Center is under state investigation for ties to multiple evictions from unlicensed sober living homes, with reports of vulnerable individuals being relocated frequently. FOX 10 Investigator Justin Lum has more.
PHOENIX - On April 28, we told you about James Demasi and Thomas Suites, which was not licensed to provide health care.
Now we're learning about his ex-wife, who, according to court records, has a pattern of renting homes and not paying landlords, but it's what the homes are being used for that raises concerns.
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In a Glendale neighborhood near North 51st and Orangewood avenues, there's a home I'm curious about with an eviction filing and the people living there didn't seem to know about it until I told them the tenant, Alma Init, and her company, Mindvalley Behavioral Health, haven't paid the landlord rent since January.
What we know:
On March 27, she was once again a no-show for an eviction hearing regarding this property.
Judge: "You're charging $15,000 a month for an apartment?"
Plaintiff: "No, she houses her clients from behavioral health."
The judge issued a default judgment in favor of the landlord for $10,000, ordering the tenants to leave.
A profile page shows a photo of Init, her title as Admin of Mindvalley Behavioral Health and her nursing degree.
The property owner has told FOX 10 she had no idea her home would be used as an unlicensed sober living home.
What they're saying:
A former employee of Mindvalley is speaking to us, but wants her identity to be concealed, so we'll call her "Barbara."
How many people would be in that house at any given time?
Barbara: "I mean, they knew if you walked into that house. I've been in that house. The living room's got people living in the living room. There's another, like, separate dining room area. There's beds in the dining... there's beds in every room.. has at least two to three beds in it."
Timeline:
And this is not the first time clients have been evicted.
"It's heartbreaking. It's heartbreaking to hear the clients talk to their facilitator or me and say, what are we going to do? We don't have any place to go, and they're still sober, but you can see in their eyes that it's really, they're really struggling," said "Mary," another former employee who wants to remain anonymous.
Both Barbara and Mary worked as behavioral health technicians and weren't paid until recently.
"We weren’t being paid as employees, but they weren’t paying for these houses that these clients were staying in either. So as soon as they got their eviction notice or their five days’ pay or quit or whatever, they'd find another place to house them, and then we'd go move the clients."
On November 19, 2024, another eviction judgment took place against Mindvalley and Init was a no-show again.
Judge: "Do we have anybody from Mindvalley Behavioral Health Center, LLC on the line?"
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The backstory:
Records reveal the company owed $15,000 in rent and late fees. FOX 10 obtained the lease agreement, which states the home needed to be licensed with the state as a behavioral health residential facility.
The landlord confirms to FOX 10 that didn't happen, but Mindvalley does have a Phoenix counseling facility licensed by the DHS, located near Greenway and Cave Creek roads.
The Mindvalley Behavioral Clinic in North Phoenix
It's common for behavioral health providers to hire an insurance biller, which leads us to Kathryn Leas, who worked briefly with Mindvalley. Leas owns Callaway Behavioral Health Solutions and says Mindvalley put clients on private insurance plans, and paid their premiums.
"Signing the clients up for Aetna ACA policies. These clients came in on AHCCCS, and she was signing them up for insurance policies through Aetna," she said.
Leas says she strictly bills commercial insurance, not AHCCCS [Arizona Health Care Cost Containment System].
Mindvalley is not even an enrolled Medicaid provider, according to three denial letters FOX 10 obtained from the state.
Leas says the target insurance carrier to bill was Aetna.
Barbara and Mary also tell FOX 10 that clients at Mindvalley were already on Medicaid plans, yet Mindvalley enrolled them into Aetna and took care of the premiums.
They had AHCCCS. But what our company was doing was putting these clients on commercial insurance. In the time that I was there, what we saw happening is that they were paying the premiums for these clients in order to keep them on the commercial insurance to bill, which I don't believe is right," said Barbara.
Mary added, "The premiums are paid; the housing is dangled in front of them. They'll sign anything."
But Leas says claims were rejected for certain individual and group therapy services for mental health due to how Mindvalley's clinic was licensed by the state as a counseling facility instead of an intensive outpatient program.
"So, when those claims were rejected, and I looked into licensure, I found out it was a counseling center which doesn't have authorization as an OTP [Opioid Treatment Program] center would have to provide services like that."
For context, AHCCCS issued a consumer notice back in February, saying members were being enrolled into Affordable Care Act marketplace plans without permission. AHCCCS encourages marketplace members to end their coverage if they already qualify for Medicaid.
As for Alma Init, we could not get an answer, so we went to Mindvalley Behavioral's clinic in North Phoenix where the state's Department of Health Services confirms an investigation is ongoing.
"That's Alma. That's Alma right there."
Alma was driven away in this car after we tried to contact her multiple times for comment.
This was our third time coming to Mindvalley Behavioral Health Clinic. We have called the owner, Alma Init. We have emailed, left her a message, came in there, and I was told that she had a meeting and didn't have time to talk to us. We've been waiting here for some time, and it looks like she snuck out in the passenger seat of someone else's car as someone drove off in her vehicle.
Former employees say there are more than 30 clients linked to Mindvalley, but it's unknown how many have been impacted and displaced due to multiple evictions.
"And these are people that are early in their recovery, and they're trying to stay sober. It's very stressful. The anxiety is really high. They get confused. They get a little scared. So, it's not a healthy situation for any of them," said Barbara.
New findings:
As for Mindvalley Behavioral Health, the inspection by AZDHS revealed several deficiencies, including the clinic's failure to ensure staff's skills and knowledge were verified and documented as well as ensure counseling was provided by a behavioral health professional.
What's next:
On April 30's FOX 10 News at 9 p.m. MST: More on the evolution of the sober living scheme – an alleged "body broker" in the West Valley is being sued by Blue Cross Blue Shield of Oklahoma.