Addiction Treatment Center With Cape Ties Faces Fraud Lawsuit

HYANNIS, MA — Attorney General Maura Healey filed a lawsuit against a national addiction treatment center chain with locations in Falmouth and Hyannis.

The lawsuit accused CleanSlate Centers and former company owner Dr. Amanda Louise Wilson of submitting tens of millions of dollars in false claims to MassHealth for unnecessary urine drug tests. The suit also accuses CleanSlate of violating federal and state self-referral laws by sending tests to the company's own lab in Holyoke.

CleanSlate also operates centers in Athol, Boston, West Springfield and Worcester. A spokesperson said the company is disappointed with the attorney general's lawsuit and do not believe there was any wrongdoing.

"We strongly believe this claim is without merit, and we look forward to the opportunity to demonstrate in court that the care provided to our patients was outstanding and the lab tests that were ordered were medically necessary,” a company spokesperson said in a statement. "Maintaining a culture of integrity is of the utmost importance to our company, and we remain confident that our business practices and policies fully comply with both federal and state law."

According to the lawsuit, CleanSlate required patients, depending on their stage of treatment, to submit a variety of qualitative and quantitative urine drug tests, and many of those tests were not medically necessary. CleanSlate and Wilson caused false claims to be submitted to MassHealth and its contracted managed care entities for these unneeded tests, which violate medical necessity requirements under MassHealth regulations, Healey said.

"This company's business model was to illegally profit by cheating our state Medicaid program, which provides vital health care resources to some of our most vulnerable residents," Healey said in a statement. "We will take legal action against this kind of misconduct in order to recover funds for our state and protect the integrity of MassHealth."

The allegations were originally made in April 2017 in a case filed under the whistleblower provision of the False Claims Act. The act permits private parties to sue for fraud on behalf of the government, and it also permits federal and state governments to intervene.