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Florida Senator and former Republican presidential candidate Marco Rubio has asked Attorney General Jeff Sessions to look into sober homes and rehabs in Florida that are "bad actors" with shady practices that have led to overdose deaths.

Rubio urged Sessions, "to the fullest extent possible-investigate claims of kickbacks and false statements associated with federal health plans" at Florida treatment centers where people have died of drug overdoses, according to NBC News.

Rubio went on to say that federal authorities should "ensure [these centers] are prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law for the devastation they have caused."

He also called on the Department of Labor and the Department of Health and Human Services to investigate accusations of kickbacks. He said that the Department of Health and Human Services needs a system designed "to identify and suspend all payments to disreputable treatment centers or sober homes."

The treatment industry in South Florida has come under scrutiny amid reports of patient brokering, insurance fraud, and other illegal practices. The bad practices are so widespread that Palm Beach County, where treatment is a $1 billion industry, has established a task force specifically for investigating sober homes. That task force was funded in part by state money.

However, if Rubio's request is granted, it would not be the first time federal agencies have looked into sober home and treatment practices in Florida. In 2014, the FBI investigated widespread insurance fraud among treatment centers in the state. The issues was so severe that Cigna stopped selling insurance policies on the Florida exchange.

In his letter, Rubio focused on the human toll of unscrupulous treatment practices.

"The possibility of losing a loved one is already frightening enough that those seeking help should not also have to worry about unscrupulous actors posing as legitimate treatment centers," he wrote.

Rubio specifically mentioned an NBC investigation that included interviews with the mothers of women who had died while in treatment in Florida.

"The mothers recounted the victims being shuffled, during a brief period of time, between multiple treatment centers, excessive laboratory tests, and questionable treatments that resulted in insurance companies being billed upwards of $1.2 million," Rubio wrote. "Unfortunately, these women did not get the help they needed and ultimately passed away after being 'treated' at fraudulent sober homes, including one called the No Drug Zone."

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Marco Rubio Asks Feds To Investigate Florida Sober Homes, Rehabs | The Fix

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Florida Senator and former Republican presidential candidate Marco Rubio has asked Attorney General Jeff Sessions to look into sober homes and rehabs in Florida that are "bad actors" with shady practices that have led to overdose deaths.

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NEWS - In 2017, there were 44 arrests, 13 convictions and counting

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NEWS - In 2017, there were 44 arrests, 13 convictions and counting

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PALM BEACH COUNTY, Fla. - This is the Ambrosia Treatment Center on Singer Island. Jerry Haffey with the treatment center said, "I hate seeing kids dying in closets because of scum bag providers."

He's clearly passionate about helping people beat substance abuse. But Haffey knows treatment centers around here have a bad reputation. That's why he joined forces with State Attorney Dave Aronberg to lobby for money to fund the Sober Homes Task Force.

"We are ground zero when it comes to instances of fraud and corruption within the drug treatment industry and together with the good players in the industry, we've been able to clean up a lot of the bad actors," Aronberg said.

Aronberg says in the Task Force's first year they made an impact, 44 arrests, 13 convictions and counting. People who try to broker patients on notice.

Aronberg added, "We still have a lot of work to do but Palm Beach County has become a national leader in this fight."

For Haffey cleaning up the corruption allows the dedicated treatment centers accomplish their mission. "They deserve the best treatment that they can possibly get."

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State Attorney shares impact of Task Force

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PALM BEACH COUNTY, Fla. - This is the Ambrosia Treatment Center on Singer Island. Jerry Haffey with the treatment center said, "I hate seeing kids dying in closets because of scum bag providers." He's clearly passionate about helping people beat substance abuse. But Haffey knows treatment centers around here have a bad reputation.

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https://www.thewatershed.com/2017/07/25/what-is-patient-brokering/

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Patient Brokering

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Statutes & Constitution :View Statutes : Online Sunshine

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Payments by a health care provider or health care facility to a health, mental health, or substance abuse information service that provides information upon request and without charge to consumers about providers of health care goods or services to enable consumers to select appropriate providers or facilities, provided that such information service:

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Dave Aronberg testifies before House panel on opioids 

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Dave Aronberg testifies before House panel on opioids 

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29:00

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Examining Concerns of Patient Brokering and Addiction Treatment Fraud

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NEWS - PBSO arrests over 26 owners of drug treatment programs 

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NEWS - PBSO arrests over 26 owners of drug treatment programs 

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In the past eight months, the Palm Beach County Sober Home Task Force has arrested and charged 28 owners and operators of drug treatment centers and sober homes with buying and selling insured addicts.

Already, seven have pleaded guilty. Court records of these cases reveal prosecutors' strategy: Allow defendants to avoid felony convictions if they agree to expose other bad operators and testify against them. If they successfully complete between 18 and 36 months of probation, they will have no felony record.

"Latest stories on sober homes and addiction treatment

The strategy appears to be working. Palm Beach County State Attorney Dave Aronberg, who created the task force, has promised more arrests.

"We're closer to the beginning than the end," Aronberg said of the investigation by the task force, which includes police, inspectors and agents from a dozen state and federal agencies. While the task force works on more arrests, Aronberg's prosecutors are now faced with taking those already arrested to court.

Many of those who have not pleaded are treatment center owners and other major players - some facing dozens of counts of patient brokering. Some have hired heavy-hitting, high-priced lawyers. It is not yet known how many of those cases - if any - will proceed to trial.

To convict a treatment provider of patient brokering, prosecutors must prove that the provider offered or paid "any commission, bonus, rebate, kickback, or bribe, directly or indirectly, in cash or in kind," for the referral of patients. Those who participate in patient-brokering schemes are guilty of a slightly different charge: aiding patient brokering. Patient brokering is a third-degree felony. Aiding patient brokering is a first-degree misdemeanor.

Twenty-two of the arrests so far stem from alleged patient brokering at two Palm Beach County treatment centers: Whole Life Recovery and Chapters Recovery, formerly known as Good Future Recovery. The list below groups those arrested by their affiliated treatment center. Information used to compile this list comes from police and court records.

Whole Life Recovery

James Kigar

Arrested Oct. 25 on 95 counts of patient brokering.

Kigar, 56, of Boca Raton, was the first person arrested by the Palm Beach County Sober Home Task Force. As owner of Whole Life Recovery Treatment Center in Boynton Beach, prosecutors say Kigar ginned up business by paying sober home operators to send him their residents for outpatient treatment. The payments were labeled as "case-management fees."

Pleaded not guilty. Case pending.

"Boynton Beach addiction treatment center's CEO and operator arrested

Christopher Hutson

Arrested Oct. 25 on six counts of patient brokering.

Hutson, 37, of West Palm Beach, worked at Kigar's Whole Life Recovery Treatment Center, where he handled payments and contracts with patient brokers, according to a police report. Hutson's criminal record includes a 2012 conviction for fraud for his role in a $40 million pill mill empire operated by Wellington brothers Christopher and Jeff George. According to court records, Hutson ran an illegal internet steroid business and sold steroids on behalf of Jeff George.

Pleaded not guilty. Case pending.

"Sober home task force arrests two Boynton Beach operators

Bryan Norquist and Patrick Norquist

Arrested Nov. 17 and Nov. 18 on 16 counts of aiding patient brokering. Prosecutors are pursuing 7 counts against Eric and 12 counts against Patrick.

Norquist, 26, of Boynton Beach and his brother Patrick, 32, of Delray Beach, are charged with brokering patients from their Delray Beach sober home, The Halfway House, to Whole Life Recovery.

Both have pleaded not guilty. Cases pending.

"Third sober home official arrested on patient brokering charges

John Dudek

Arrested Nov. 17 and Feb. 26 on 39 counts of aiding patient brokering.

John Dudek, a 55-year-old tattoo artist from Delray Beach, has been arrested twice on aiding patient brokering charges. In both cases, Dudek received $450 for each addict with insurance that he enrolled from his sober home, Southern Palms Oasis to Whole Life Recovery.

Dudek pleaded guilty to 13 counts of aiding patient brokering on June 16 and was sentenced to three years of probation. He must also pay a $5,000 fine. As part of his plea deal, Dudek agreed to aid and testify in cases brought by the Sober Home Task Force. He cannot work in the drug treatment industry and may not discuss cases with others facing charges from Whole Life Recovery and Chapters, formerly doing business as Good Future Recovery. Dudek also must provide two DNA samples. He will not have a felony conviction if he successfully completes probation.

"Two sober home operators got kickbacks from treatment program, state says

Alex Vandervert

Arrested Dec. 13 on four counts of aiding patient brokering.

Vandervert, 29, of Hollywood, received $3,335 for residents from his Lake Worth sober home, Saje House, that he enrolled in Whole Life Recovery.

On April 19, he pleaded guilty to four counts of aiding patient brokering. Also, he must pay a $11,000 fine and serve three years of probation. He must cooperate with investigators, testify if necessary and provide two DNA samples. Sober homes he may own or operate must be certified by the Florida Association of Recovery Residences. Vandervert will not have a felony conviction if he successfully completes probation.

"Lake Worth sober home owner charged with patient brokering

Ehab "Egypt" Iskander

Arrested Nov. 22 on six counts of aiding patient brokering.

Iskander, 34, of Lake Worth, pleaded guilty on May 19 to six counts of brokering residents from his sober house, Integrity House, to Whole Life Recovery. He was sentenced to two years of probation and ordered to pay $5,250 fine. Additional details of his plea deal are sealed.

"Fifth sober home arrest in six days

Howard James Fowler Jr.

Arrested Nov. 21 on 14 counts of aiding patient brokering. Prosecutors pursued 7 charges.

Fowler, 27, of Boynton Beach, owned and operated Anchorage Sober Living in Delray Beach, and Limitless Consulting Solutions LLC. Fowler received kickbacks for brokering residents at his sober home to Whole Life Recovery, according to court records. The checks were signed by Kigar.

As part of a plea deal on Feb. 15, Fowler pleaded guilty to seven others. Fowler, who claimed on his Facebook page that he is a recovering addict, was sentenced to three years of probation and a $15,000 fine. He will not have a felony conviction if he successfully completes probation.

"Man faces patient brokering charges

Amanda LaFrance

Arrested Dec. 2 on 8 counts of patient brokering and 5 counts of aiding patient brokering. As co-owner of Saved by Grace, a sober home in Delray Beach, LaFrance deposited $6,750 in 13 checks from Whole Life Recovery for case-management services, according to court records.

LaFrance, 25, came to Florida several years ago for treatment, according to her mother. LaFrance pleaded guilty to four counts of patient brokering and one count of attempted patient brokering. She was sentenced to 18 months of probation and must cooperate with investigators. She will have no felony conviction if she successfully completes probation.

"Woman charged in sober home crackdown takes deal, avoids prison

Anthony Tursi

Arrested Dec. 16 on 13 counts of aiding patient brokering. Prosecutors pursued six counts.

Tursi, 30, of Boca Raton, pleaded guilty to six counts of aiding patient brokering on April 17 for accepting kickbacks for referring insured addicts from his sober home, Fellowship House, to Whole Life Recovery. Kigar signed many of the checks, according to court records. Tursi must serve two years of probation and pay a $15,000 fine. Additional conditions of his bond were redacted from the court file.

"Operator of Boca Raton sober home faces patient brokering charges

Leonard Dobard

Arrested Jan. 4 on 11 counts of aiding and attempting to aid patient brokering for enrolling residents living in his sober home, House of Chance, in Boynton Beach, in programs at Whole Life Recovery.

Dobard, 50, of Delray Beach, pleaded guilty on April 27 to nine counts of aiding patient brokering and two counts of attempted patient brokering. He was sentenced to three years of probation and ordered to pay a $10,500 fine. He also must cooperate with investigators and is barred from working in the drug treatment industry. He will have no felony record if he successfully completes probation.

" 11th arrest made in sober home crackdown

Zarinah Hargrove and Angela Weathersbee

Arrested May 17 . Both face 22 counts of patient brokering and aiding patient brokering.

Hargrove, 41, of West Palm Beach, owner of True Sober Living on Kirk Road, allegedly accepted 11 payments for referring clients to Whole Life Recovery. Weathersbee, 37, of Lake Worth, signed attendance forms used by Whole Life to determine the referral fees paid to True Sober Living, according to court records.

Both have pleaded not guilty. Cases pending.

"Sober home owner and manager accused of patient brokering

Chapter's Recovery/Good Future Recovery

Daniel Kandler

Arrested Feb. 23 on 93 counts of aiding patient brokering and on May 11 for 5 counts of patient brokering. Prosecutors are pursuing 48 of the aiding patient brokering charges and the five patient brokering charges. .

Kandler, 41, was the owner of Chapters Recovery, formerly known as Good Future Recovery. According to the arrest report, Kandler paid $325,000 to three sober home operators who enrolled residents living in their sober homes in treatment programs at Chapters Recovery. In December, the Sober Home Task Force raided the business.

Kandler is also the owner of Impact Q Testing, a laboratory next to Chapters in Delray Beach. Police reports say that Kandler - along with co-owners David Remland and Mark Desimone - made payments to James Tomasso and others for urine samples from addicts at various treatment centers. Prosecutors filed five additional patient brokering charges against Kandler in May relating to business practices at his lab.

Pleaded not guilty. Case pending.

" Drug treatment CEO arrested on 93 counts of patient brokering

"Sober home task force makes 26th arrest: Takes aim at labs

David Remland

Arrested May 10 on five counts of patient brokering.

Charges against Remland, 52, of Boca Raton, stem from his alleged involvement with his business partners, Kandler and Mark DeSimone at Chapters and Impact Q.

Pleaded not guilty. Case pending.

"Sober home task force makes 26th arrest: Takes aim at labs

Mark DeSimone

Arrested May 11 on five counts of patient brokering.

State corporation records show DeSimone, 61, of Delray Beach, as the registered agent and manager of Good Future. Charges stem from his alleged involvement with his business partners, Kandler and Remland.

Pleaded not guilty. Case pending.

"Sober home task force makes 26th arrest: Takes aim at labs

Eric Lahr and Adam Lahr

Both arrested Feb. 26 on 34 counts of aiding patient brokering. Prosecutors are pursing 12 counts against Eric 29, and one count against 26-year-old Adam.

The brothers, owners of The Treatment Professionals, accepted 34 checks totaling $185,904 for enrolling residents at their sober in treatment programs at Chapters Recovery, formerly Good Future Recovery, according to court records.

Both have pleaded not guilty. Cases pending.

"More sober home operators arrested.

Kristopher Bayne

Arrested Feb. 24 on 33 counts of aiding patient brokering. Prosecutors are pursuing 23 counts.

Bayne, 28, of Delray Beach, received checks from Good Future Recovery totaling $94,225 for insured addicts from his sober home business, Guiding Light Properties, that he enrolled in the treatment program, according to court records.

Pleaded not guilty. Case pending.

"Sober arrests ratcheting up: Operator charge with taking kickbacks

Sarah Muhammad

Arrested June 15 on 35 counts of aiding patient brokering and one count of patient brokering.

Muhammad, 50, of Boca Raton, worked as the admissions director at Chapters Recovery, a substance-abuse treatment facility that also did business as Good Futures Recovery in Delray Beach. Over six months, Muhammad was connected to more than $155,000 in referral fees to the Lahr brothers and Bayne for enrolling residents at their sober homes in treatment programs at Chapters Recovery.

Awaiting arraignment. Case pending.

" Admission director at Delray treatment center arrested

James Tomasso

Arrest Feb. 8 on 21 counts of patient brokering and four counts of aiding patient brokering. Prosecutors are not pursuing the four counts of aiding patient brokering.

Tomasso, 57, is also the target of a forfeiture, filed by the Delray Beach Police Department, for $61,881 found in his home during a search on Feb. 8. Tomasso, who was on federal probation and barred from the drug treatment business when he was arrested, paid more than $68,000 to the operator of Infinity House sober home to enroll residents of Infinity House in Tomasso's treatment programs.

Tomasso operated Pathways 2 Recovery in Boca Raton, Inspirations Recovery in Greenacres and Acceptance Recovery Center in Delray Beach from the offices of Global Recovery Resources, another business owned by Tomasso.

Police reports say Tomasso also accepted payments from Kandler, Remland and Desimone for urine samples from addicts at various treatment centers.

Pleaded not guilty. Case pending.

"Boca treatment center owner charged with patient brokering

Dickie Taylor Dreher

Arrested May 11 on nine counts of aiding patient brokering for accepting kickbacks from Tomasso for enrolling clients in Tomasso's treatment centers, according to police reports.

Dreher, 24, of Palm Beach Shores, is scheduled to accept a plea bargain at a court hearing on Aug. 10.

"Sober home task force makes 26th arrest: Takes aim at labs

Palm Beach Recovery and Wellness

Steve Johnson

Arrested March 1 on 48 counts of aiding patient brokering. Prosecutors are pursuing 46 charges.

Johnson, 45, a 1990 graduate of Wellington High School, paid referral fees to sober home operators to steer insured addicts to his treatment center, Palm Beach Recovery & Wellness in West Palm Beach. Johnson used a bank account from another company he operated, Reel Recovery, to pay referral fees to Alex Vandervert, according to court records. Vandervert pleaded guilty in April to brokering clients to Whole Life Recovery.

Pleaded not guilty. Case pending.

"Sober home task force raid nets 20th arrest

Hope Center for Recovery/Relapse Prevention

James and Jaclyn Durkin

Arrested Feb. 9. James Durkin, 37, faces eight counts of forging checks. His wife, Jaclyn Durkin, 29, faces two counts of forging checks.

James Durkin operated Hope Center Recovery, which did business as Relapse Prevention in Boynton Beach. According to court records, the couple used the credentials of a doctor who did not work for them to file insurance claims. James Durkin forged the doctor's signature, according to court records. Jaclyn Durkin deposited two checks, according to court records. Her husband deposited others, for a combined total of $37,487.

Both pleaded not guilty. Cases pending.

"Addiction treatment center raided: Husband and wife arrested

Epiphany Treatment Center

Robert "Bobby" Simeone

Arrested March 21 on 15 counts of aiding patient brokering.

Simeone, 46, a former Palm Beach County sheriff's deputy who left to open Epiphany Treatment Center in West Palm Beach, paid referral fees to sober home operators for each insured addict they enrolled in Epiphany. Vandervert also aided investigators in the case against Steve Johnson.

Pleaded not guilty. Case pending.

"Former deputy and state house candidate faces patient brokering charges

Anastasia Way/London Treatment Center

Matthew Anderson

Arrested May 10 on two counts of patient brokering.

Anderson, 38, offered free rent to residents of his West Palm Beach sober home, Anastasia's Way, contingent on their attendance at London Treatment Center, also in West Palm Beach, court records show.

Pleaded not guilty. Case pending.

"Owner of West Palm Beach sober home accused of patient brokering

The Wellness Center of Palm Beach

Jayeshkumar Rameshander Dave

Arrested June 27 on two counts of patient brokering.

Dave, 39, owner of The Wellness Center in West Palm Beach, required addicts living in his sober homes to enroll in his treatment program and also paid their rent and gave them cigarettes and gift cards, according to court records. Investigators obtained messages from Dave's Facebook account and found "countless pages of airline tickets," Uber rides and other services to entice addicts, according to court records.

Awaiting arraignment. Case pending.

"West Palm Beach treatment center owner charged with patient brokering

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Sober Home Task Force score: One-fourth already have pleaded guilty

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In the past eight months, the Palm Beach County Sober Home Task Force has arrested and charged 28 owners and operators of drug treatment centers and sober homes with buying and selling insured addicts. Already, seven have pleaded guilty.

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http://www.sa15.state.fl.us/stateattorney/

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Dave Aronberg Interview on NBC's Sunday Night with Megyn Kelly

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Dave Aronberg Interview on NBC's Sunday Night with Megyn Kelly

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Sunday Night With Megyn Kelly : WRC : June 25, 2017 7:00pm-8:00pm EDT : Free Streaming : Internet Archive

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News stories, investigations, profiles and interviews are featured in this newsmagazine.

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State Attorney Website - Sober Homes Task Force

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State Attorney Website - Sober Homes Task Force

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Sober Homes Task Force Meetings / Minutes / Agenda / Audio

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Link to statute regarding marketing practices of substance abuse centers

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Statutes & Constitution :View Statutes : Online Sunshine

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Entering into a contract with a marketing provider who agrees to generate referrals or leads for the placement of patients with a service provider or in a recovery residence through a call center or a web-based presence, unless the service provider or the operator of the recovery residence discloses the following to the prospective patient so that the patient can make an informed health care decision:

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Florida Association of Recovery Residences

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As a prospective resident, how do you select the recovery residence that best meets your needs and preferences? What research is suggested prior to making a qualified selection? FARR recognizes four distinct support levels. Which level is best suited for your needs?

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FARR | Florida Association of Recovery Residences

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As a prospective resident, how do you select the recovery residence that best meets your needs and preferences? What research is suggested prior to making a qualified selection? FARR recognizes four distinct support levels. Which level is best suited for your needs?

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FARR and the SAO have published a displacement policy.

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Overview of what happens in the meetings since January of 2017. A lot of the information that I will use will come from these attachments.

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Resources / Information Charge Book Bad Check Restitution Program Child Abuse Child Internet Safety Compromised Identity Identity Theft Law Enforcement Reporting A Crime Sex Offender Reporting Teen Dating Safety Grand Jury

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The Palm Beach County Sober Homes Task Force is being recognized for their fight against the opioid epidemic.

"We've been recognized now by a national organization for the 'Investigation of the Year,' which was the prosecution of Kenneth Chatman, who is going to be serving federal prison time," said State Attorney Dave Aronberg.

It's a prestigious award from the National Health Care Anti-Fraud Association.

The task force was honored for its role in sentencing sober home operator Kenneth Chatman for running a health care fraud scheme.

After making more than 41 arrests, the task force is now helping to train prosecutors across the nation on how to handle rogue treatment centers.

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The Palm Beach County Sober Homes Task Force is being recognized for their fight against the opioid epidemic.We've been recognized now by a national organization for the 'Investigation of the Year,' which was the prosecution of Kenneth Chatman, who is goin

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PALM BEACH COUNTY, Florida - For the first responders who found her lifeless body one October morning, 24-year-old Alison Flory was yet another casualty of addiction here on the front line of Florida's opioid crisis.

To her family, she was a daughter, a beloved sister, a goofy bookworm who made them laugh and a young woman they desperately hoped would get help. She had arrived in South Florida from Illinois just more than a year before she died, seeking treatment for her addiction. Her parents believe it is that treatment, paid for by her family's excellent insurance, that ultimately got her killed.

"It haunts me," said Scott Weber, Alison's stepfather. "She trusted in people that she shouldn't have trusted in."

"And we told her to trust those people," said her mother, Jennifer Flory.

The Rehab Capital of America

Palm Beach County can feel like paradise. The ocean laps on soft-sand beaches and the wind rustles through tall palms. Maseratis cruise the roads and mansions rise behind gilded gates. On the wealthiest stretch of waterfront sits Mar-a-Lago, President Trump's winter White House. In its backyard is one of the rehab capitals of America.

Related: How to Find a Good Drug Treatment Program and Avoid the Bad Ones

Thousands of addicts arrive here each year from Ohio and West Virginia, New Jersey and Pennsylvania, 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 has found that many of these vulnerable patients have become grist in an insurance fraud mill. Crooked 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.

Related: Death Race: Florida's First Responders Race To Save A Steady Stream of Overdose Victims

Once they've reeled patients in, these treatment centers bill their insurance tens of thousands of dollars for often questionable counseling, costly and potentially unnecessary drug screens, and exotic laboratory tests. Some treatment centers not only overlook drug use - they encourage it. To Florida's worst operators, relapse doesn't mean failure. It means profit.

"This is an entire industry that's been corrupted by easy money," said Palm Beach County's top prosecutor, State Attorney Dave Aronberg. "Unscrupulous actors have taken advantage of well-intended federal law, and a lack of any good law at the state level, to profit off people at the lowest stages of their lives."

That law is the Affordable Care Act, which along with the federal Mental Health Parity Act passed in 2008, was meant to ensure people suffering from addiction could get the care they needed. Together they required insurers to cover substance abuse treatment, barred companies from rejecting those with preexisting conditions, and allowed young people to stay on their parents' insurance until age 26. But this broader coverage met with little oversight.

Those looking to make cash found the country's opioid epidemic had provided them with a trove of desperate people, many young and hooked on pills or heroin, and access to a deep pool of insurance dollars. Everyone got in on the business. Substance abuse treatment in Palm Beach County used to consist largely of a scrappy network of treatment centers and sober homes that just scraped by. In the past few years it's become a $1 billion business, according to the Palm Beach Post's calculations.

"It's a total scam," said Aronberg. "Not only are taxpayers footing the bill, but people are dying unnecessarily because of this."

The scammers have made it difficult for the ethical, and sorely needed, treatment centers and sober homes to survive, said John Lehman, the director of the Florida Association of Recovery Residences, an industry group that oversees sober homes.

"The broad brush of bad actions and illegal activity is painting across everybody," said Lehman. "So the good guys are having trouble keeping their beds full. And the bad guys are saying you want to shoot dope in the bathroom, go ahead."

Three Moms Send Their Daughters to Florida

Alison Flory was a teenager who loved to be in love. She loved trips to the bookstore in Sugar Grove, a Chicago suburb, Star Wars, ice cream, and when she was 17, she fell for a boy. He was artsy, and moody, and loved her back, so much that when she said she wanted to break up, he threatened to kill himself. Her mother thought it was teenage stuff. "I said, 'That's ridiculous,'" Jennifer Flory said.

He called Alison one night after they split. She didn't answer. On the voicemail, she could hear as he jumped in front of a train. Alison was beside him at the hospital when he died.

"She felt like it was her fault," said Flory. "I felt like it was my fault. We all felt like it was our fault."

Alison started with prescription pills to dull the pain. Her parents read the signs - moodiness, languishing in bed - as grief. And they were. But she was also sinking into substance abuse. Flory's smart, ambitious daughter made it less than a year through college, dropped out, and sank deeper. She did a month of rehab in Illinois, and Flory thought she'd get her smiling daughter back. But when Alison got out, her parents said a boy Alison met in rehab introduced her to heroin. Jennifer didn't know exactly what was wrong with her daughter. In 2015, when Alison was 23, Flory knew she needed help.

Related: Moms Unleash Anger on Corrupt Rehab Owner

That was the same year that Michelle Curran decided that rehab was going to be the difference between life and death for her daughter, Mikaya Feucht. Mikaya first used pills after a surgery while she was still in high school outside of Columbus, Ohio, a state that routinely leads the nation in deadly overdoses. By the time Feucht was 23, she had two little boys she loved fiercely, but the pull of heroin threatened to tear them apart.

Across the state in Troy, Sandra Hinkle was at work as a 911 dispatcher the day in April 2015 when the call came in that her 22-year-old daughter Kaitlyn Cruea had overdosed on heroin. Cruea had a little boy, too. Hinkle wanted Cruea to live to see her son Karter grow up. To get her well, Hinkle felt she had to get her daughter out of town.

These mothers discovered that Florida was happy to help. They found the state's flourishing recovery industry through an internet search, word of mouth, and the help of an Illinois man working as a marketer for a Florida treatment center. Their daughters each started at a different treatment center, but the pattern is the same.

Someone checked their insurance, asked a few questions, bought their daughters a plane ticket to South Florida - a potentially illegal marketing practice. The mothers were told their insurance would cover the care and that everything was going to be okay.

"I felt like it was my fault. We all felt like it was our fault."

"I felt hopeful, more than I had ever felt," said Jennifer Flory. "I didn't know. I thought going to this treatment program was going somewhere special."

Within a few months, each mother began to suspect something was wrong. Their daughters would call every few weeks to tell them they had moved to a new sober home. And when they did, the names of the treatment centers on the bills that kept arriving changed too.

Envelopes from their insurance company arrived almost daily, detailing thousands of dollars in treatment and thousands more in laboratory tests. There were bills from chiropractors and bills from counselors and bills for DNA testing.

Dizzied, the mothers tried to track from afar where their daughters were and who was helping them get sober. Sometimes, when they called, a counselor on the other end of the line would offer updates, or explain charges. Others never even picked up.

As their girls hopped from house to house, the envelopes from the insurance companies mounted. But the mothers didn't realize the scope of the problem, because no one ever came to collect. Treatment centers routinely, and illegally, waive co-pays and deductibles, according to prosecutors, telling patients and parents insurance covers everything.

Treatment centers and labs rack up sky-high bills, sometimes collecting only a fraction of the money charged for a $5,000 urine test or a $1,800 counseling session. What they don't get paid, they write off, said Aronberg. Flory, Curran and Hinkle said they never got calls from debt collectors, so it took time to realize what was unfolding.

Curran's insurance would be charged more than $600,000 by the seven treatment centers Mikaya attended between January and June of 2016. Flory's was charged about $1.2 million during the 15 months Alison bounced between nine different facilities in South Florida. At least three of the facilities the girls attended have been raided by law enforcement and shuttered. All of the facilities declined requests for comment by NBC News.

Hinkle hasn't tallied up everything yet, but she keeps coming back to that one month when she said she got billed for more than 172 different charges.

"How did I not see this? I should have known," said Hinkle. "You just want to believe they're in the right place, that they're getting the help that you sent them for."

How the Florida Model Was Born

In 2015, the year these mothers first sought help, nearly 52,500 people lost their lives to an overdose in the U.S, up nearly 40 percent from 2010. About 33,000 of those deaths were due to opioids, more than any year on record. Overdoses now kill more people than car accidents, more than guns.

Treatment is not always within reach. Waitlists for beds at state-run facilities across the country can run weeks or months. Many private rehabs don't take insurance, and their fees can run $10,000 or more a month.

For these problems, the Sunshine State had an answer.

The "Florida model" was born with good intentions. In a traditional, 28-day inpatient program, patients are cloistered, then return to the community.

In many South Florida programs, clients first attend inpatient detox, then do more intensive rehab and outpatient treatment while living in the community. The idea was that this would better develop their ability to live on their own. It also kept costs lower, so some insurance companies would cover treatment longer.

"Sober homes" became key to this model. Patients would pay rent to live in the group homes, sleeping and eating there, then report to nearby drug treatment centers staffed with counselors and doctors. At their best, these homes provide structure, rules and a community to lean on in the early stages of recovery. But unscrupulous operators began to realize these homes could be a way to reel in vulnerable addicts.

Some sober homes offered addicts free or discounted rent, cash, and other perks in exchange for attending a specific treatment center, which law enforcement officials said violates Florida laws barring kickbacks and insurance fraud. Those in the shuffle are more blunt.

"It's like hustling humans," said Drew, a 21-year-old from West Virginia who was living in a sober home in Delray Beach last February. "They'll take extra insurance money and pay you to live there and just let you get high because the owner's making bank."

Delray Beach Mayor Cary Glickstein estimates that his city of 66,000 has about 700 sober homes that house up to 7,000 people in recovery. Nearby Lake Worth, Boynton Beach and West Palm Beach likely hold hundreds more. Exactly how many is hard to know, because sober homes operate without any kind of oversight - and the bad homes, he said, are crowding out the good.

"These kids are just cycled through different houses," said Glickstein. "There's no supervision. Many times they're supervised by convicted felons, people that are trafficking drugs while they're supposed to be supervising kids in recovery."

This is an unintended consequence of federal disability and housing laws that bar municipalities from discriminating against those with physical or mental disabilities, including addiction. Cities that have tried to limit sober homes have been successfully sued for discrimination. But because the treatment isn't technically being provided within the homes, they can't regulate them as they would drug treatment centers either.

Within these homes, people are dying. Palm Beach County's overdose deaths have quadrupled in the past four years, hitting almost 600 in 2016, as the number of treatment centers and sober homes has grown. The rise of the synthetic opioid fentanyl is exacerbating the problem, making batches of heroin stronger, and more deadly.

"It's a tragedy on so many levels," said Glickstein. "The desperate parents in Ohio and Kentucky and Michigan that are being lured through deceptive websites with palm trees have no idea what their kids are getting into when they get down here."

Palm Beach County has started to crack down. Last year it launched a task force, headed up by State Attorney Aronberg, which has made 30 arrests for so-called "patient brokering" since last July.

In May, Gov. Rick Scott officially declared Florida's opioid crisis a state of emergency. Legislators recently passed a bill that would increase penalties for brokering. It will give prosecutors sharper tools to crack down on what a grand jury last December found was rampant brokering and fraud across the industry.

"The legitimate players, the good guys, are far outweighed by the corrupt," said Aronberg. "This is not a case where a few bad apples spoil the whole bunch. This is a case where most of the apples are spoiled."

Among those to see gold in addiction was a man who became one of South Florida's most notorious treatment center owners. All three of the girls from the Midwest, Alison, Mikaya and Kaitlyn, would get wrapped up in his network. His name was Kenneth Chatman.

'He Sees A Dollar Sign'

Rehab was not the first way Chatman tried to make a buck in Florida. In 2008, Chatman, a transplant from New York, pleaded guilty to federal charges for running a credit card fraud scheme. After that, he founded a car dealership that didn't go far. Then he had a gym, where, according to an account he posted online, he got interested in the journey to recovery.

In 2012, while he was still on federal probation, he became what's known in South Florida as a "body broker." He rented houses in the area and began to operate them as sober homes under the name Stay'n Alive. He stepped into a game already hot throughout South Florida. He partnered with local drug treatment centers, offering to send them his residents in exchange for kickbacks.

More than 100 pages of police reports obtained by NBC News through an open records request show that his homes were chaotic from their earliest days. One address was visited by the police 15 times in a year.

Sometimes Chatman called the cops to deal with an unruly resident. Sometimes the residents called to complain about Chatman - for kicking them out, refusing to give them back a phone, or in one woman's case, trying to block her from leaving.

There were also rumors of Chatman trafficking his female clients. In 2013, a woman reported that her god-daughter was living in one of Chatman's houses. She told police he had called her to demand money, and that she had heard Chatman was prostituting women under his care.

In 2017, he would plead guilty to a multi-million dollar conspiracy to commit healthcare fraud, and to sex trafficking, for prostituting his female clients.

But at the time, those rumors didn't hinder him. In fact, Chatman worked his way up from brokering patients out of his sober homes to running the drug treatment centers themselves.

In Florida, nearly anyone can open a treatment center, as long as they have a little cash, find a doctor to write prescriptions, and a clinical director to oversee treatment. The exceptions are those, like Chatman, with felony convictions. To dodge that, his wife, Laura, became the official owner. Reflections Treatment Center launched in late 2013.

The empire rose quickly. One arm of it oversaw the sober homes, some of which Chatman continued to run himself. He also recruited a network of other homes to funnel bodies to his treatment center. He has since admitted to giving $500-a-week kickbacks to sober home operators who brought him insured clients. All told, court papers show Chatman paid out at least $640,000 to three sober home operators who sent people his way.

In exchange for free rent, addicts boarded vans - "druggie buggies" as locals call them - three to six mornings a week, bound for Reflections. Chatman, fit and nattily dressed, put up a good front. He posted videos of success stories, and made a brand of t-shirts his clients wore that read DOPELESS HOPE FIEND.

But behind the blackened windows of the treatment center in a Margate, Florida strip mall, former clients and employees said treatment wasn't the priority.

"I walked right into the group room and I could easily spot that at least 90 percent were getting high," said Jack, who attended Reflections in 2015. He said Chatman made it clear clients could use as long as he could bill their insurance. "When he looks at a client, he doesn't see a human being," said Jack. "He sees a dollar sign."

But the real dollars didn't come from sitting kids down for treatment. It was in getting them to pee in a cup.

A $10,600 Bill for a Drug Test

In the spring of 2016, the incessant bills Michelle Curran received in the mail began to make her wonder. She called her insurance company, Cigna, but she said no one ever called her back. (Cigna said it could not comment directly on Curran's case for privacy reasons, but said it has since contacted Curran and is addressing fraud issues in Florida).

One day on the phone with her daughter Mikaya Feucht, Curran started to try to get to the bottom of things.

"I'm like, 'I didn't know you saw your therapist every single day,'" Curran remembered. Feucht said she most certainly did not. "So I said, 'Are they doing drug tests every day too? I have a bill here for $10,600." And she goes, 'Mom, I've' - and these were her words - 'I've peed in a cup twice this week.'"

Random drug screens have long been a key piece of recovery. Treatment centers and sober homes used to depend on dipstick tests, the kind anyone can do, which can run as low as $5 apiece. If staffers got what they thought was a false result, they'd send it over to a lab for "confirmatory" tests to make sure the results were right.

Chatman was among a group of treatment center operators who realized laboratories could become the financial fuel of the rehab industry.

They made deals with labs, or started up their own, so they could take a slice of every test billed. Particularly lucrative were young people from out of state like Feucht, Flory and Cruea, because their insurance could be charged at sky-high out-of-network rates. One tally by an industry group found 75 percent of the young people in treatment in Florida are from out of state.

Doctors at treatment centers would put in "standing orders" for near-daily drug screens, along with genetic and allergy tests that could run thousands of dollars.

To maximize profits, some treatment centers retest samples or double-test patients. When Chatman didn't have enough clients in treatment to hit his lab numbers, he had employees submit their own saliva and urine to keep the money flowing, according to court documents.

Chatman teamed up with at least five different labs, according to the federal indictment filed against him in 2016. Kickbacks were so common that he allegedly complained to one laboratory rep when he wasn't offered money or wined and dined.

One unnamed lab wrote Chatman at least $160,000 in kickback checks between December 2014 and May 2015, court papers show. Another allegedly had a driver go to the Florida Keys to cash checks and deliver thousands of dollars to Chatman each week.

Chatman went to great lengths to keep a hold on people. Former clients and court documents describe how he nailed the windows of houses shut, and locked them in from the outside. He confiscated and never returned their cell phones. He took their money and then plied them with drugs so they would relapse, trigging another round of insurance-funded treatment.

Curran said that in May 2016, she learned a man named Kenny had allegedly provided her daughter drugs so she would relapse. When Feucht overdosed, he allegedly left her on a sober home lawn for the first responders to find.

When some parents called Reflections to ask about stories they were hearing from their kids, Chatman convinced the parents their kids were lying, according to one former employee, because that's what addicts do. But his most effective tool may have been that he always provided a home of last resort.

"Even though he mistreated a lot of them, he had this hold over them," said a woman who worked at Reflections in 2014. "A lot of people had been cut off by their parents. He always took you back in."

Former employees said they tried to raise flags. Three said they asked the state's Department of Children and Families, which regulates treatment centers, to do a surprise inspection. In an email sent to DCF in February 2015 and provided to NBC News, one person who had worked there told the agency that despite the fact that Chatman's wife Laura was on the paperwork, Chatman was actually in charge. The email also said patient applications had been forged, and that there were rumors Chatman was prostituting his clients.

DCF told NBC News that the agency did not have authority to screen personnel or spouses not listed in certain leadership roles on licensure applications. The agency did not respond specifically to NBC News' questions about warnings employees said they submitted about Chatman.

Two months later, in April 2015, a woman contacted the Palm Beach County Sheriff's Office. She told police that Chatman ran flophouses, using one as a "staging home for women who are addicts," according to her account in a police report obtained by NBC News. She charged that he kept her and other women "in a state of impairment in order to pimp them out," placing ads for them on a local escort site.

Local police turned the investigation over to the FBI. Police reports show the agency already had an active investigation going on Chatman.

But that didn't hinder Chatman from growing his business. In September 2015, DCF gave Reflections a permanent license to run both intensive rehab and outpatient treatment. A year later, Laura Chatman applied to open a second treatment center, Journey to Recovery. The application, obtained by NBC News, shows that while the center was opened under Laura's name, Kenny Chatman is listed as a signatory to its bank account. It was approved.

The same month, he and Laura bought a $1.1 million home in Reflections' name. Chatman posed for photos at charity events, where he gave away large checks to support kids' football games and unwed mothers.

Chatman relied on this image as a pillar of the community in December, when the Palm Beach Post published a scathing expose, which included details from the report of the woman who said she had been prostituted. Chatman denied everything, telling the paper in a statement, "I would never, knowingly put any of the clients of Reflections Treatment Center or any other vulnerable young person in harm's way."

In the wake of Chatman's arrest, DCF said it has accepted the surrender of both licenses for his treatment centers. The agency said it refers complaints that are beyond its authority to law enforcement, and coordinates with those groups to hold individuals accountable. It has also supported recent legislation to beef up standards for substance abuse in the state.

"The alleged practices of those who have been accused of taking advantage of vulnerable individuals are shameful and sickening and DCF has no tolerance for this type of behavior," the agency said in a statement.

Chatman's attorney Saam Zanganeh said that his client was a small fish in an industry where fraud and kickbacks run rampant. "Everybody's looking for a scapegoat," Zanganeh said in May, when a judge sentenced Chatman to spend the next 27 years in federal prison. Zanganeh said his client had fully cooperated with federal authorities, and criticized the judge for overruling the "miraculous" plea deal of 14 years Zanganeh had negotiated.

Laura Chatman pleaded guilty to two felony counts for letting her husband use her name on the paperwork for the treatment centers they opened. Her attorney, Christopher Lyons of the Miami-based firm Mase Tinelli, said that she had been kept in the dark about her husband's business. "She is sincerely remorseful for her role in the offense and causing so much pain to the victims and their families," he said.

Two sober home operators, a mental health counselor and a doctor have also pleaded to fraud charges. A third doctor has pleaded not guilty, and is taking his case to trial.

The First To Die

Katie Cruea was the first of the three Midwestern girls to move into Chatman's houses, and she was the first to die.

She'd been living in sober homes linked to Chatman for about two months when her mother, Sandra Hinkle, bought her a ticket to come back to Ohio for the holidays. She arrived at noon on Christmas Day 2015, and left a few days before New Year's. At the airport, Cruea begged Hinkle not to make her go back. Hinkle thought her daughter was just getting cold feet, doing that addict thing.

"She said, 'Mom please don't make me go, I'm afraid I'm never going to see you again,'" Hinkle remembered. "I gave her a hug, and said 'You will absolutely see me again, I'll never let anything happen to you. I'm your mom.'"

But Hinkle never did see her daughter again. Cruea overdosed on February 24, 2016. She was found in a local motel, dead of an overdose of cocaine mixed with the synthetic opioid carfentanil. "It was almost like she was giving me a warning, like she knew," Hinkle said.

Five months later, Mikaya Feucht, who had been shuffling through the same network of Chatman-linked houses since March, got kicked out of her sober home after her boyfriend got in a fight with the manager. In the middle of the night, Feucht, her boyfriend and bags holding all of their belongings were dumped at a motel in Boynton Beach.

Curran was in touch with Feucht that night and most of the following two days, trying to figure out a plan to get her daughter stabilized. Then the phone went quiet. At 3:07 on the morning of July 31, two sheriff's officers knocked at the door of Curran's house in Ohio, where Feucht's two boys slept tight.

Curran sat on the couch, tired and confused. It wasn't until an officer knelt on the floor next to her that it clicked. Curran said he told her, "'We had a detective from Florida get ahold of us.' And I knew. I said, 'What happened to my daughter?' They told me she was found in that hotel."

"I'll never let anything happen to you. I'm your mom."

Local police have responded to 17 overdoses at that motel since 2010, at least five of them deadly. For many addicts caught in the South Florida shuffle, motels are the last stop.

Alison Flory was still living in her sober home the day she died. Things seemed to be going well. Alison would call back to Illinois to talk to her younger siblings for long stretches, chatting about movies or counseling her brother on how to navigate the bullies at school. "She was their idol, just the fact that she was in Florida was breaking their heart," Flory said. "She was really feeling a bond with family, she was trying to make things right."

October 13, the last day of Alison's life, was like many before it. She got up, she went to treatment at Reflections, she sat in group therapy, she peed in a cup. Then she went back to her sober home, a yellow bungalow where she and her boyfriend were living with at least three other couples. Shamar Brooks, the 24-year-old "manager" who rented and operated the home, lived in the green house next door.

The 911 call came from Brooks at 8:35 the next morning. When he entered the house to wake everyone up to go to Reflections, he told responders, he found Alison wasn't breathing. He couldn't feel a pulse. She was declared dead at 9:09 a.m.

Flory said she never got a call from Brooks, or from Chatman at Reflections. "No condolences," said Flory. "There was nothing." It was a roommate of Alison's who called to tell Flory her daughter had died. Brooks told NBC News he considered Alison a friend, and declined further comment.

On May 17, Hinkle, Curran and Flory traveled to Florida for Chatman's sentencing. Each took a turn, along with nine other people, standing before a federal judge in Palm Beach County to tell him what Chatman and the South Florida shuffle had done to their families.

"He had such influence - why didn't he use that influence to help people?" Flory told the judge as Chatman sat, shackled at the waist and nearly motionless at the table behind her.

Like the other mothers, Flory wanted justice. But above all, she wanted Alison's death to bring change, to save someone else's life.

"There's no sentence that will bring my daughter back," Flory added. "She didn't deserve to die."

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Fatal overdoses, fraud plague Florida's booming drug treatment industry

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PALM BEACH COUNTY, Florida - For the first responders who found her lifeless body one October morning, 24-year-old Alison Flory was yet another casualty of addiction here on the front line of Florida's opioid crisis. To her family, she was a daughter, a beloved sister, a goofy bookworm who made them laugh and a young woman they desperately hoped would get help.