FLORIDA RETIREMENT COMES EARLY –
April 23, 2021 – Said Aronberg, “Mr. Lohan was investigated by our Sober Homes Task Force and he’s being charged with receiving kickbacks for referring patients to drug treatment. Patient brokering corrupts our health care system because decisions are motivated by greed instead of a patient’s needs. This is our Task Force’s 117th arrest and will not be our last.”
Heidi Perlet, Lohan’s attorney, did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
According to the charging documents, an investigator spoke to Lohan on April 8, 2021, when he denied being involved in patient brokering.
South Florida is sometimes known as the “recovery capital of the world.” Thousands of addicts arrive here each year from all over the U.S., hoping that at one of South Florida’s many drug treatment centers, they’ll find recovery. And some do.
But an investigation by NBC News in 2017 found that many of these vulnerable addicts had been treated more as profit centers than patients. Some treatment centers partner with “body brokers” and operators of so-called “sober homes” to find patients with good health insurance. Brokers and sober home owners offer those trying to get clean free rent and grocery store gift cards, cigarettes and manicures in exchange for going to a specific treatment center, which pays kickbacks for every client.
