A Florida doctor was sentenced to 20 years in prison for engaging in a massive multi-year scheme to bill healthcare benefit programs for fraudulent tests and treatments for vulnerable patients seeking treatment for drug and/or alcohol addiction. This case was brought as part of the Department of Justice’s Sober Homes Initiative.
According to court documents, Michael J. Ligotti, D.O., 48, of Delray Beach, served as Medical Director or Authorizing Physician for over 50 sober homes, substance abuse treatment facilities, and clinical testing laboratories in the Palm Beach County area, often signing standing orders for expensive, medically unnecessary urine drug tests for patients at various addiction treatment facilities. These facilities routinely sent patients’ urine specimens to clinical testing laboratories, which then billed healthcare benefit programs for unnecessary urine drug tests, often thousands of dollars for a single test. In exchange for Ligotti’s authorization of these urine drug tests, the treatment centers required their patients to regularly visit Ligotti’s clinic, Whole Health LLC, for additional treatment and testing, or allowed Ligotti’s staff to come to their facilities to conduct tests and treatment there. This allowed Ligotti to profit by billing patients’ private health insurance plans for duplicative, medically unnecessary, and expensive urine drug tests, blood tests, and other addiction treatments.
As a result of this conduct, which took place from 2011 to 2020, healthcare benefit programs were billed over $746 million and paid approximately $127 million for fraudulent urine drug tests and addiction treatments. Ligotti pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit healthcare and wire fraud in the Southern District of Florida in October 2022 and was ordered to surrender his medical license.
