Costa Mesa addiction treatment CEO faces federal charges

Arrested envelopment – Read List –

Oct. 3, 2020 – The massive federal crackdown charges defendants with submitting more than $6 billion in fraudulent claims to federal health care programs and private insurers. That includes some $4.5 billion connected to telemedicine schemes; $845 million connected to substance abuse treatment or “sober home” schemes; and another $806 million in other health care fraud and illegal opioid distribution schemes.

“These ‘sober homes’ cases are particularly egregious, not just because of the substantial amounts of financial loss they cause, but also because of the significant harm they cause to patients who are used and abused along the way,” said Acting Assistant Attorney General Brian C. Rabbitt in announcing the crackdown on Sept. 30.

“In many of these cases, defendants are alleged to have preyed upon addicted patients, recruiting them from their hometowns, where they have support networks, and shipping them off to far-away states where they are placed into these so-called ‘sober homes.’ Once there, these vulnerable patients are often provided with drugs that undercut their ability to recover from the addiction they are trying to kick, and they are often shuffled from facility to facility to boost headcount and maximize billing, instead of being given the care they so desperately need.”