BROOKFIELD, WI —On Thursday, a U.S. District Judge entered a civil judgment of over $2.3 million against a doctor and his Brookfield substance abuse clinic after authorities accused him of making false prescription claims to Wisconsin's Medicaid program.
U.S. District Judge Joseph P. Stadtmueller entered the default judgment against Dr. Siamak Arassi and the clinic Healing Corner in connection with violations of the False Claims act, according to a news release from U.S. Attorney Gregory Haanstad. Federal authorites and the stepfather of a patient who received care from the Healing Corner filed a joint complaint against the clinic and Arassi in 2019, court documents showed.
The complaint accused Arassi and the clinic of ordering excess Vivitrol, a drug that can be used to treat alcohol dependence and prevent opioid relapse. The clinic — at the direction of Arassi —would order the prescriptions under former patients' names who were reimbursed by Wisconsin Medicaid, creating a stockpile of the drug that the clinic would administer to non-Medicaid patients for cash, according to the news release.
For one former patient the clinic ordered Vivitrol five times under Medicaid reimbursement, the complaint said, even though the patient was no longer being treated there after 2016. At one point, the patient was incarcerated but Vivitrol was...
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