A growing number of substance-abuse treatment facilities, rather than helping patients overcome their drug dependencies, are keeping them hooked in order to commit insurance fraud, according to law enforcement officials.
The problem is especially rampant in Florida, which has the most “sober homes” per capita of any state. A sober home is a treatment facility where people recovering from addiction live together to get mutual support.
An example of the problem is the case of Kenneth Chatman. The owner of now-closed treatment centers Reflections and Journey, Chatman is currently serving a 27-year federal prison sentence for healthcare fraud and money laundering, according to an Associated Press report.
When Chatman’s patients’ insurance coverage was about to expire, they would be given drugs to trigger a positive drug test, according to the AP.
“They don’t care if you die,” former patient Blake Oppenheimer told the AP. “They just want to keep swiping that insurance card so they can keep getting money out of you. I felt like I was something in a store that was just trying to be sold over and over again.”
Another Florida treatment operation fraudulently billed insurance companies for more than $58 million over four years, according to the FBI. Authorities say the fraud included faking urinalysis samples, double-billing, and paying “patient brokers” to illegally direct substance abusers to particular facilities.
