Addiction treatment patients scramble after 14 care centers close down amid fraud case

U.S. Attorney Zachary Cunha announced charges against the CEO of Recovery Connection Centers of America.

Cunha accused 60-year-old Michael Brier of defrauding health insurers out of millions of dollars while depriving patients of drug treatment services.

These defendants in fact short changed their patients, providing them with little or no therapy and support, while at the same time billing Medicare and other insurers as if they had,” Cunha said on Thursday.

The doors at the Recovery Connection Center's 14 locations in Rhode Island and Massachusetts closed for good on Friday, forcing patients that seek suboxone treatment and other addiction recovery services to go elsewhere.

Thankfully, other addiction treatment facilities in the area were there to help.

My front desk got a call and there were actually two people that were waiting outside and they were actually like, 'What time do you guys close? Because we're actually out of medication today,’” said VICTA CEO Alex Donoyan.

VICTA, located in Providence, said it has since taken on about 30 new patients, and they're willing to take on more so that people can get the treatment that they need.

We have an open door policy, you walk in we'll take care of you. My providers, my clinicians, my medical staff, the front end, everybody knows that this is priority. Continuity of care is the most important thing, and if you're in treatment to stay in treatment, and if you need us, just reach out,” Donyan told WJAR.

In Massachusetts, there are also resources for residents that have been left without treatment.

A flyer left on each Recovery Connection Center location instructs patients on who they can call and where they can go.

The health departments in both Rhode Island and Massachusetts are working to set up mobile response units to bring treatment to people who need it most.

Meanwhile,Brier, who has a history of tax fraud and embezzlement, was also charged in the complaint with money laundering and obstruction.

Mi Ok Bruining, 62, of Warwick, Rhode Island, was also named in the complaint. Cunha said she is a formerRecovery Connection Centers of America employee who worked as a supervisory counselor.

"What makes the fraud scheme that we have charged today particularly pernicious – is that not only was this scheme, as we allege, designed to defraud by enriching these defendants with federal and private healthcare dollars they did not earn, but that in the process it cheated a vulnerable population of recovery patients out of the full, genuine support and treatment that they need to have a chance at recovery,"Cunha said at a press conference.