BUSINESS AS USUAL? –
Oct. 8, 2025 – Penny Lamb and Jeffery Lichtenberg were 1,500 miles from their home in Oklahoma with no money and no prospects when they were kicked out of their drug rehab program.
None of it had gone as expected. Months earlier, Lichtenberg said, a man he knew from a past prison stay had promised to help if they ever wanted to kick their meth habits. The man texted photos of rehabs that looked like Hollywood mansions for movie stars, with swimming pools and hot tubs. They wouldn’t have to pay a cent … When they arrived, the facilities looked nothing like the photos, the couple said. They were shuttled between properties where illicit drugs were common and treatment included logging onto crowded video calls.
They relapsed often. They switched programs. For Lamb alone, various operators billed her insurance for more than $500,000 over seven months, according to her insurance records. One day last fall, their insurance benefits ran dry, and they were ordered to pack up and leave.
“What should we do?” Lichtenberg, 48, asked their program manager.
“If you don’t want to live on a park bench, I suggest you get a tent,” he replied. For almost a year, the green tent that Lichtenberg bought at Walmart with $77 borrowed from his mother served as a home in a dusty encampment here known as the Dice.
Fraud has become a multimillion-dollar problem in America’s booming rehab industry, according to state officials, lawsuits filed by insurers and former clients, and federal indictments and convictions.
The rehabs are often in locations that people might be tempted to travel to, such as beachside cities in Florida. It’s become especially prevalent in California, where operators have discovered a steady stream of revenue by luring people with addiction from across the country and billing their private insurance. Lawsuits and federal cases allege that rehabs can charge insurance hundreds of thousands of dollars for a few months’ stay, but offer little in the way of treatment.
