Fix the Florida Shuffle to End Florida’s Opioid Epidemic
The opioid crisis is up 110% and is tearing through America and Palm Beach County is bearing the brunt of it all. In an effort to solve the opioid crisis, Palm Beach County State Attorney Dave Aronberg has launched a website to convince federal policymakers to fix what is known as the Florida Shuffle.
The Florida Shuffle refers to illegal patient brokering and insurance fraud within the drug treatment industry that keeps patients in an unending cycle of opioid dependence. “Although there are many good drug treatment and sober living providers in Florida and elsewhere,” said Aronberg, “the unscrupulous ones encourage relapse over recovery to line their pockets with insurance money and financial kickbacks.”
While the federal government has failed to address the ongoing opioid crisis, fixthefloridashuffle.com is serving as a response and offering insight into how well-intended laws such as the Affordable Care Act and the Americans with Disabilities Act have been misused by unscrupulous individuals within the rehab industry for financial gain to keep addicts in a perpetual cycle of relapse. If nothing is done at the federal level, fraud and abuse in the drug treatment industry will continue and individuals suffering from opioid addition will be exploited until they overdose or die.
Having fought the opioid crisis since 2001, Aronberg currently leads the Sober Homes Task Force. This task force has made 54 arrests and 22 convictions since October 2016, and led to changes in Florida law that enhanced criminal penalties and tightened oversight over the rehab industry.
With the continued opioid crisis wreaking havoc in Palm Beach County and across much of the country, fixthefloridasuffle.com is calling on federal lawmakers to solve this crisis. The website includes an explanation of the Florida Shuffle along with specific proposals to fix it, an updating news section about the issue, and an online petition to urge federal action.
One of the proposals on the new website is for Congress to pass the “Eliminating Kickbacks in Recovery Act” by Senators Marco Rubio (R-FL) and Amy Klobuchar (D-MN), which would expand the jurisdiction of the U.S. Department of Justice to prosecute patient brokering kickbacks involving private sector rehab.
As it stands now, roughly 136 people die every day due to opioid use and if current laws are left in place, they will continue to lead to thousands more opioid-related deaths throughout the country. The grim reality is local and state officials cannot solve this crisis alone, it must be addressed at a federal level, and fixthefloridashuffle.com is a step in the right direction to bring attention to the Sunshine state’s ongoing problem. The launch of this site provides a place where people can learn more as well as what they can do to help convince federal policymakers to change the laws and put an end the cycle of opioid dependence. After all, ending the cycle of the federal government subsidizing fraud and abuse in the drug treatment industry has to begin somewhere, and what better place than the Sunshine state.