Clik here to view.
O.C. District Attorney charges family, doctors with insurance fraud related...
SANTA ANA – The owners of a string of Southern California sober living homes and two medical doctors are facing insurance fraud charges tied to what authorities allege was a $22 million urine test...
View ArticleCalifornia the over-regulator? Not for addiction treatment
When it comes to drug and alcohol rehab centers, California channels its inner Texas: few burdens on business and as free-market as possible. That stands in sharp contrast to New York, Massachusetts...
View ArticleRiverside County rehab center owner going to jail for insurance fraud
The owner of a southwest Riverside County drug and alcohol rehabilitation center, who filed fraudulent medical insurance claims that netted her more than $231,000 in ill-gotten gains, pleaded guilty...
View ArticleHundreds ensnared in Justice Department health-care fraud crackdown on $1.3...
A fake drug rehab in Palm Beach recruited addicts with gift cards, strip-club visits and even drugs, federal officials said Thursday, July 13, enabling the company to bill for more than $58 million in...
View Article‘Urgent…alarming’– but rehab investigator won’t be in thick of SoCal action...
The idea seemed simple, elegant and eminently logical – but in Sacramento, there may be no such thing as a simple idea. Assembly Bill 572 would move one of the state-paid inspectors of addiction...
View ArticleSovereign Health sues FBI and IRS over ‘SWAT-like’ raids on its treatment...
The operator of a network of substance abuse treatment centers filed suit Monday, Oct. 2, against the FBI, IRS and other agencies over a series of raids in Southern California that the plaintiffs...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Are implants for opioid addicts a new hope or new scam?
If a stake could be driven through the vampire heart of the nation’s opioid epidemic, it might look something like this: Four spines, each smaller than a matchstick, sunk into a drug addict’s upper...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Are drug rehab centers fueling homelessness in Southern California?
Part of our ongoing investigation into the Southern California rehab industry. Thirteen-hundred miles from his rural Arkansas home, Tyler McCollough paces across a motel parking lot, veins bulging at...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Urine empire, lax oversight expose flaws in California rehab laws
Part of our ongoing investigation into the Southern California rehab industry. Philip Ganong, his wife and their 34-year-old son built a fast-growing, multi-million-dollar empire on urine. They...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Detox can end in death at some ‘non-medical’ Southern California rehabs
Part of our ongoing investigation into the Southern California rehab industry. “This is the beginning of your beautiful new life!” So began a contract for Above It All Treatment Center, a drug...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Rehab Riviera: Are drugs for drug addicts a solution or a crutch?
The white pill looks like a baby aspirin. Brody Webster sticks it in his mouth and holds it there for 15 minutes, trying not to swallow. When the underside of his tongue finally goes numb, he knows he...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Rehab Riviera: California testing Vermont’s model to fight addiction
The time for hand-wringing was over. Vermont Gov. Peter Shumlin took the podium in 2014 and delivered a state-of-the-state speech devoid of the usual trappings. “During the tenure of every governor...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Rehab Riviera: Industry struggling to get clean
Rapists, child molesters and pedophiles served in positions of trust inside state-licensed addiction treatment centers because, in California, no criminal background checks were required. Addiction...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Bill aims to plug holes in addiction treatment industry
Stoned and crying in April, 2017, Timmy Solomon hears a voice. “What’s wrong, why are you so sad,” the voice slurs from a sleeping on the concrete near a gas station. The voice belongs to Timothy, a...
View ArticleFormer NBA star Dennis Rodman enters rehab after suspected DUI in Newport Beach
Dennis Rodman, a former NBA rebound champion who won five championships while playing for the Detroit Pistons and the Chicago Bulls and briefly was on the Lakers, has checked into a New Jersey rehab...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Quest for sobriety often ends in sexual assault at some rehabs in Southern...
Part of our ongoing investigation into the Southern California rehab industry. The woman’s voice trembled. She was being treated for addiction at the rehab center Hope by the Sea, she told the 911...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Death in rehab generates $7 million award
Shaun Reyna was delusional, despondent and desperate to get clean when he slit his neck and arms with a razor at a state-licensed detox center in Riverside County in 2013. For some two hours,...
View ArticleClik here to view.
LA/OC ‘Rehab Mogul’ convicted of sexually exploiting patients and offering...
Self-desbribed “rehab mogul” Christopher Bathum, 56, the former operator of more than a dozen drug treatment facilities in Los Angeles and Orange counties, was convicted Monday, Feb. 26, 2018, of 31...
View ArticleCalifornia bill targets profiteering in addiction treatment, dialysis industries
By Chad Terhune, California Healthline A California lawmaker is seeking to rein in addiction treatment centers and dialysis providers accused of profiteering off vulnerable patients by collecting...
View ArticleClik here to view.
State shuts down Pasadena-based ‘Celebrity Rehab’ center over death, repeated...
State health regulators are moving to revoke the license of a well-known Pasadena drug rehabilitation center made famous by the reality television show “Celebrity Rehab with Dr. Drew.” The Department...
View Article