Fighting the Florida Shuffle: The Inside Story of Corruption in the Drug Treatment Industry and How One Community Found the Solution

"An unflinching view into the dark side of an industry meant to be the hope of those caught in the grip of addiction..." - Dr. Jay Kuchera, MD, FASAM

Motivated by greed, Purdue Pharma's explosive marketing of its powerful painkiller, OxyContin, helped create the opioid epidemic that kills over 200 people every day in the United States. Many more battle substance use disorders that impact health, happiness, family relations, and jobs. Federal policymakers have responded with laws that require insurance policies to cover drug treatment and classify addiction as a preexisting condition. But what happens when the rehab industry itself is corrupted, leading to the untimely death of individuals in their care?

Fighting the Florida Shuffle is a gripping account of how unscrupulous players have infiltrated the drug treatment industry, and how well-intended, yet naïve policymakers continue to incentivize relapse over recovery. Former State Attorney Dave Aronberg and MSNBC Chief Medical Correspondent Dr. Dave Campbell tell the stories of victims enticed with free plane tickets and other illicit benefits to enter substandard outpatient rehab and live in flophouses masquerading as "sober homes," leaving too often in ambulances and body bags. The authors offer an insiders' perspective from the world of law enforcement and medicine on how corporate malfeasance fueled the rise in opioid overdoses, how families can identify and avoid rehab scams, and how one community fought back to clean up the industry and put the worst offenders behind bars.

Drug treatment has become a thriving enterprise, but the profit motive has lured predators to exploit the vulnerable who seek help. As rogue rehab owners line their pockets through insurance fraud, patient brokering and illegal kickbacks, their victims leave behind grieving families and loved ones, who wonder how the insurance coverage thought to be a lifeline led to increased overdose and premature death.