When the Affordable Care Act was passed in 2010 it guaranteed coverage for people going through addiction treatment for the first time. This was a huge benefit for many people, but it also created conditions that led to some treatment providers taking advantage of people in recovery — and part of that corrupt system is what’s referred to as The Florida Shuffle.
But it wasn’t just the Affordable Care Act, the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) and even the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPPA) also play a part. Put simply, the Florida Shuffle is when proprietors of what are called ‘sober homes’ effectively "broker patients" in order to keep them in a cycle of addiction and recovery. Well-run sober homes are meant to be a place where people who have been through supervised detox and inpatient treatment and then outpatient care can use as a bridge between treatment and returning to their lives.
Palm Beach County on Florida’s east coast was once the epicenter of the Florida Shuffle. But the State Attorney there, Dave Aronberg, created a task force to put pressure on them, eventually arrested more than 100 sober home operators and basically ending the problem in the county. But the problem persists elsewhere, and now Aronberg has co-written a book with Dr. David Campbell, he’s chief medical correspondent for MSNBC’s ‘Morning Joe’ (which Aronberg often appears on as well) called “Fighting the Florida Shuffle: The Inside Story of Corruption in the Drug Treatment Industry and How One Community Found the Solution.”
We talk with Aronberg to find out how Palm Beach County took on corrupt sober home operators, and what tweaks he recommends to end the problem elsewhere.
Guest:
Dave Aronberg, former State Attorney for the 15th Judicial Circuit which includes Palm Beach County, former democratic member of the Florida Senate, and co-author of "Fighting the Florida Shuffle: The Inside Story of Corruption in the Drug Treatment Industry and How One Community Found the Solution."
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