Audrey Strauss, the Acting United States Attorney for the Southern District of New York, announced a $6 million settlement of a civil healthcare fraud lawsuit against A.R.E.B.A.-CASRIEL, Inc. d/b/a Addiction Care Interventions Chemical Dependency Treatment Centers (“ACI”), a substance abuse treatment provider in New York City, and Steven Yohay, ACI’s primary owner and former CEO. This settlement resolves allegations that ACI and Yohay provided kickbacks and engaged in fraudulent conduct in connection with the enrollment of Medicaid beneficiaries into ACI’s inpatient treatment program. Specifically, the Government’s complaint alleges that ACI’s drivers targeted homeless individuals and offered them food, cash, money to purchase drugs, and/or alcohol in order to induce them to enroll in ACI’s inpatient treatment program. The lawsuit further alleges that ACI paid an individual a kickback in the form of a sham job for which she was compensated more than $75,000 to induce her to refer patients to ACI programs. The lawsuit also alleges that ACI used medical admissions forms containing photocopied physician signatures to make it appear that new patients had been evaluated by a qualified healthcare professional as required by law.
