How Many Body-Brokering Cases Have Been Prosecuted By The Feds Under New Law?
LAPPL News Watch
March 16, 2020
As California continues to grapple with the plague of body-brokering — the sometimes-deadly practice where addiction centers lure substance abusers into treatment, max out their insurance benefits, then give them drugs so they can test “dirty” and start the lucrative billing cycle again — officials here fear the federal government doesn’t have their backs.
Since President Trump signed a sweeping measure to address the nation’s opioid crisis in October 2018, the U.S. Department of Justice hasn’t prosecuted a single case for body brokering, according to the DOJ.
“It is extremely frustrating that the Department of Justice has not aggressively pursued cases where brokers treat patients as commodities, exploiting them for finders’ fees with no intention of providing legitimate care,” said Rep. Mike Levin, D-San Juan Capistrano, in a prepared statement. “There is no excuse for their failure to prosecute these cases, particularly when we desperately need an all-hands-on-deck approach to this crisis.”
No comments:
Post a Comment