As the opioid crisis rages on across the U.S., an insurance fraud scheme is preying on addicts trying to beat their disease. A Boston Globe-STAT News investigation found some treatment centers are using the addicts to defraud insurance companies.
The report says centers pay ‘patient brokers,' as they are called, to recruit addicts from across the country - and sign them up, often using fake addresses from states with generous insurance benefits. Then they order treatment and tests, billing the insurance companies, whether the patients are recovering or not.
Founder of 'Hand Delivered Hope' Lynnel Cox has seen these problems firsthand while her son was undergoing treatment for opioid addiction. She joined Jim Braude, as did the journalists behind the story: Globe reporter Evan Allen and STAT reporter David Armstrong.
