Camden addiction clinic to pay millions in settlement over alleged kickback scheme
Camden Treatment Associates will also undergo at least three years of monitoring to ensure it’s compliant with healthcare laws.
A Camden addiction clinic has agreed to pay the federal government $3.15 million in civil and criminal penalties to settle a federal case alleging that it made money illegally through a kickback scheme with another company providing methadone medication for its patients.
Federal authorities will monitor Camden Treatment Associates for three years to make sure that it’s compliant with health-care laws under a settlement reached this week with the U.S. Attorney for New Jersey. As part of the agreement, authorities will not prosecute the owners of Camden Treatment Associates, whose programs offer patients both counseling and the addiction medication methadone.
Federal officials said the clinic allegedly ran a kickback scheme with the company that mixed its methadone doses for patients between 2009 and 2015 and submitted false information to get paid for its services by Medicaid, a government health-care program for people with low incomes and disabilities.
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Both the methadone mixing company and CTA were owned by “related parties,” authorities said, and profits the second company earned from mixing CTA’s methadone ultimately went to owners of both companies.
Federal authorities also allege that CTA committed fraud during an audit of its Medicaid claims in 2016. Among other allegations, the treatment center purportedly added signatures and different credentials for staff listed on medical files.
The settlement reached between CTA and the federal government also covers a civil allegation — that between 2013 and 2016, noncredentialed interns were working at CTA without enough licensed staffers to supervise them.
As part of the settlement, CTA will agree to pay an independent consulting firm to review its compliance with federal health-care law, and create an independent board of advisers to do the same. It must also provide the government with written reports on its progress every six months for the next three years.
If the clinic doesn’t comply with the agreement, federal prosecutors can still charge it with a crime, officials said, noting in a news release that the claims in the settlement are “allegations only” and did not necessarily affect the health of its patients.
In a statement, Paul Zoubek, a Montgomery McCracken Walker & Rhoads attorney representing the treatment center, said that the settlement resolved “outstanding issues which occurred more than six years ago.”
“CTA has a long-standing commitment to improving operations and has made significant investments over the past several years to become a stronger organization,” he said.