Via NY Times -- By MICHAEL CORKERY

As drug addiction soars in the United States, a booming business of rehab centers has sprung up to treat the problem. And when drug addicts and their families search for help, they often turn to Google.

But prosecutors and health advocates have warned that many online searches are leading addicts to click on ads for rehab centers that are unfit to help them or, in some cases, endangering their lives.

This week, Google acknowledged the problem — and started restricting ads that come up when someone searches for addiction treatment on its site. “We found a number of misleading experiences among rehabilitation treatment centers that led to our decision,” Google spokeswoman Elisa Greene said in a statement on Thursday.

Google has taken similar steps to restrict advertisements only a few times before. Last year it limited ads for payday lenders, and in the past it created a verification system for locksmiths to prevent fraud.

In this case, the restrictions will limit a popular marketing tool in the $35 billion addiction treatment business, affecting thousands of small-time operators.

By CITY NEWS SERVICE | via The Press-Enterprise

The owner of a southwest Riverside County drug and alcohol rehabilitation center, who filed fraudulent medical insurance claims that netted her more than $231,000 in ill-gotten gains, pleaded guilty Wednesday, July 5 to insurance fraud and was immediately sentenced to about nine months in county jail.

Noam N. Levey--Contact Reporter:

"The healthcare bill Senate Republican leaders unveiled last week would increase the number of people in the U.S. without health coverage by 22 million and push up medical costs for millions of other poor and sick Americans, according to a new analysis by the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office.

Watch Megyn Kelly's piece on Florida's SUD treatment system, "The Florida Shuffle".

By SCOTT SCHWEBKE and TERI SFORZA | Orange County Register

The FBI, along with state and local officials, executed a sealed search warrant at several Sovereign Health locations on Tuesday, including the company’s offices in San Clemente.

By: caselaw.findlaw.com

Appellant Sanjiv Goel, M.D., Inc.1 appeals from a judgment following a court trial on his quantum meruit claim for fees for emergency treatment rendered to four patients as an interventional cardiologist. The trial court found that the fees paid by Respondent Regal Medical Group, Inc. (Regal) for this treatment reflected the reasonable value of the services that Goel provided.
The sole issue presented on appeal is whether the trial court employed the correct legal standard in determining the reasonable value of Goel's services. 

Self-titled “Rehab Mogul” Christopher Bathum will stand trial on charges of fraudulently billing companies $176 million, one of the largest criminal cases against an addiction facility in state history, a judge ruled Tuesday.

By Fred Schulte, Kaiser Health News

Two Florida Medicare Advantage insurers have agreed to pay nearly $32 million to settle a whistleblower lawsuit that alleged they exaggerated how sick patients were and took other steps to over-bill the government health plan for the elderly.

FRED SCHULTE, KAISER HEALTH NEWS- DOJ alleged that the insurer made patients appear sicker than they were to collect higher Medicare payments