A civil rights attorney said the state agencies named in the lawsuit unfairly targeted health care providers during the Medicaid fraud investigation.

PHOENIX — Officials in states nationwide began experiencing issues accessing portals used to make Medicaid payments Tuesday morning. A spokesperson for Gov. Katie Hobbs' office confirmed that Arizona officials had been unable to access payments since 12:40 p.m.

The burden of Republican-proposed Medicaid cuts could disproportionately fall on rural Arizonans who rely on the program.

Attorney Ben Crump is getting involved in the Arizona Medicaid scandal that is believed to have cost the state nearly $2 billion in fraud claims.

Arizona officials acknowledged that a fraud scheme targeting Indigenous people with addictions cost taxpayers $2.5 billion. But they haven’t accounted publicly for the number of deaths tied to the scheme.

The order is temporarily on ice, but uncertainty swirls around which programs would and wouldn't be hit by the federal aid freeze.

Ben Crump sues Arizona for targeting health providers in a Medicaid fraud crackdown, alleging discrimination against minority-owned businesses.

Arizona law bans gender reassignment surgery for anyone under 18. Trump signed an executive order that cuts federal funding for gender-affirming care for anyone under 19.

The providers say they were unfairly targeted in an illegal effort to save face after the state was rocked by a $2.5 billion health care scandal.

"The state's desire to avoid embarrassment and protect its reputation in the wake of the sober living scandal has unjustly overshadowed the Plaintiffs' constitutional rights and protections guaranteed to them by the Constitution of the State of Arizona," the lawsuit states.

The temporary funding pause was temporarily blocked by a federal judge shortly before it was set to begin at 3 p.m. on Tuesday in Arizona.

In a new joint lawsuit venture, Attorney Ben Crump claims behavioral health providers were unjustly targeted in Arizona's Medicaid scandal. FOX 10 Investigator Justin Lum has the story.