Dr. Howard Oliver was when a respected rehab medical professional, signing off on taxpayer-funded drug addiction treatment for more than 1,500 people without ever seeing most of them– because, as he stated, even “a brick can go through therapy.”
He was a essential figure in a cesspool of scams revealed by The Center for Investigative Reporting and CNN in an investigation that recorded widespread unfaithful and a glaring absence of state oversight in California’s rehab system for the bad.
Now, Oliver’s in jail, sentenced to serve more than 7 years.
His conviction is a capstone of a sweeping yearslong criminal crackdown on deceptive rehab centers triggered straight by the 2013 CIR/CNN investigation
Scams is widespread in California’s drug rehab program for the bad, with centers cheating taxpayers by billing for therapy that never ever took place.
All informed, the California chief law officer’s workplace has actually charged 144 people associated with 49 rehab centers, resulting in 96 convictions and more than $4 million in restitution bought up until now, according to firmrecords A couple of cases are still pending.
The 96 convictions do not consist of anypatients Nearly all were owners or workers of rehab centers. Numerous of the center operators included in the series have actually now been prosecuted and founded guilty. The firm decreased to remark.
The convictions bar center operators and staff forever from billing Medi-Cal, the state’s Medicaid system, though they can use to be renewed, according to the state Department of Health Care Providers.
Oliver worked as medical director for numerous of the centers captured up in the sweep, however one in specific led to his failure. District attorneys stated Oliver assisted West Coast Therapy Center in Los Angeles take $ 2.8 million from Medi-Cal.
Here’s how the plan worked: The center paid off people with totally free bus passes and present cards in exchange for copies of their Medi-Cal ID cards, according to courtrecords Center staff would then use those ID cards to manufacture phony patient charts, counseling notes and sign-in sheets for therapy sessions that never ever took place. Oliver signed off on all the treatment, even after staff informed him consistently that he was authorizing therapy for phony patients, district attorneys stated. The center billed the federal government for it all, raking in millions, rather of supplying real services to genuine people having a hard timewith addiction
In addition to Oliver, 3 other West Coast Therapy leaders were founded guilty.
” The management of West Coast Therapy was relied on to provide crucial services to people in their community who were fighting addiction,” Chief Law Officer Rob Bonta stated in a declaration revealing Oliver’s sentencing in December. “Rather, they established the facility to take taxpayer cash and diverted millions from state resources to their own gain.”
Oliver’s lawyer in that case, Stephen Bolinger, stated Oliver challenged that anybody had actually informed him the center was billing for “ghost patients” and is appealing the conviction.
” His position is that he was essentially made a patsy,” Bolinger stated. “He relied on people he should not have actually relied on.”
The CIR/CNN investigation, based on thousands of pages of federal government records, lots of interviews and undercover security, revealed that the state of California had actually been putting 10s of millions of dollars into lots of centers in spite of outright signs of scams. The state enabled people who must have been disallowed from the system– consisting of a guy founded guilty of arranged criminal offense— to run misaligned taxpayer-funded centers. Some centers made therapy notes and billed for ghost customers who never ever camein Others padded customer rolls by identifying teens with addictions they didn’t have or capitalizing of psychologically ill homeowners of board-and-care houses, enticing them in with cigarettes and money.
Even when regulators captured the centers unfaithful, the federal government kept administering public funds.
When state authorities decreased interview demands, CNN approached the secretary of California’s Health and Human Solutions Firm outside a public conference in June 2013, where she attempted to get away from press reporters and called for security. Not long after, the state released a crackdown, which led to the convictions.
At That Time, Oliver worked as medical director to numerous of the suspect rehab centers, in spite of a history of altercations with regulators. When press reporters approached Oliver about his function, he didn’t hesitate. Oliver welcomed press reporters to trip West Coast Therapy Center, which he thought about an excellent center. There, when asked how he authorized treatment for patients without seeing them, some of whom might not even exist, Oliver stated, “Well, I do not understand that they do not exist.”
8 years after CIR and CNN exposed his practices, a jury founded guilty Oliver of felony Medi-Cal scams, conspiracy, grand theft and tax evasion, to name a few charges. In December, he was sentenced to 7 years and 8 months in state jail. His medical license was suspended.
He’ll be qualified for parole in 2025.
Will Evans can be reached at wevans@revealnews.org Follow him on Twitter: @willCIR