Patient Broker Goes To Prison For Preying On NJ Drug Addicts

FROM BROKER TO BROKEN –

May 17, 2024 – The confessed schemers enlisted “recruiters” to pay users addicted to heroin and other drugs with “robust” private health insurance several thousand dollars to enter specific drug rehab centers in New Jersey and other states — whether they needed treatment or not, U.S. Attorney Sellinger said.

They even arranged and paid for cross-country travel, he said. The company “maintained contractual relationships with drug treatment facilities around the country” and “engaged a nationwide network of recruiters” to identify and approach potential patients in New Jersey and elsewhere, Sellinger said.

The schemers often selected rehab facilities that they knew “provided ineffective drug treatment or actually fostered drug use on their premises” to keep the scheme going, the U.S. attorney said.

Those facilities, in turn, paid $5,000 to $10,000 per patient in referral fees — funded by health insurance — to a marketing company owned by Devlin and two accomplices, he said.