Melissa L. Jampol, Member of the Firm in the Health Care & Life Sciences and Litigation practices, in the firm’s New York office, was quoted in Bloomberg BNA, in “Prosecutors Watching for Grift in Substance Abuse Treatment,” by Matt Phifer.

Following is an excerpt:

The Justice Department is taking a new hard line on kickbacks, unnecessary treatments, and excessive urine tests at “sober homes” and other substance abuse facilities as the scourge of the opioid crisis makes headlines.

Justice Department officials in recent weeks have stated their intention to pursue prosecutions against unscrupulous substance abuse treatment providers in South Florida. Two major trials against substance abuse treatment providers will be coming next year. So far this year in southern Florida, at least 34 people were charged, 19 people convicted, and over $20 million in restitution ordered for a variety of crimes related to substance abuse treatment fraud and the illegal distribution of opioids.

“It seems to be a growing concern in the world of health-care fraud for one simple reason, and that is because that’s where the money is,” Melissa Jampol, a former federal prosecutor working in Epstein Becker Green’s health-care and life sciences practices in New York and Newark, N.J., told Bloomberg Law. …

“I think you really have to watch the recruitment of patients and how patients are being brought in and the use of third-party vendors,” Jampol said. “People get into trouble by hiring brokers or getting recruiters to get people in.”

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