Once touted as a recovery success story, Philly rehab owner admits he illegally profited from others’ addictions

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Young Smart Addiction Profiteer –

June 26, 2019 – Managers of Real Life Recovery, a rehab center, and Halfway There, a sober-living house, allegedly offered patients free airfare, rent, and other perks, and ignored their continued drug use as long as they maintained insurance that would cover the expensive and often unnecessary treatments and tests they received there.

Some patients Lubowitz sent to Florida were given urine tests up to four times a week, each costing as much as $9,000. In all, prosecutors said, the scheme generated $3 million to $9.5 million in fraudulent insurance billings for the centers’ managers between 2011 and 2015.

“Patients’ urine was the ‘liquid gold’ used to earn the scheme’s illegal gains,” Assistant U.S. Attorney James V. Hayes wrote in a court filing last month that accused Lubowitz and his codefendants of netting millions in profits on the backs of “young, addicted vulnerable, and desperate individuals dealing with serious drug and alcohol addictions.”