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SALT LAKE CITY — Dennis Cecchini hopes to help shield other Utah parents from experiencing the grief he has in losing his son to drug addiction.
"We made a concerted effort to save his life for two years," Cecchini tearfully told members of the state's Health Reform Task Force on Thursday. Tennyson Cecchini, 33, died of an overdose in May, his father said, after being kicked out of a treatment center for taking drugs he somehow obtained at the facility.
"Putting them back on the street is a very, very dangerous thing," Cecchini said, adding that he hopes a better standard of care can be facilitated at the many facilities throughout Utah.
Allegations of fraud and other criminal practices are impacting care and prompting lawmakers to consider a plan to properly license and regulate substance abuse treatment facilities in Utah. The regulations would develop a standard of care, as well as educate the public of the quality and variety of programs available.
The change in current practice would need approval from lawmakers and new laws put in place, partly being facilitated by Sen. Dean Sanpei, R-Provo.
The disturbing problems in the industry were brought to light after the task force heard serious allegations of health-insurance fraud being conducted at several treatment centers throughout the state. Patient brokering is also believed to be yielding substantial financial rewards, according to Eric Schmidt, president of the Utah Association of Addiction Treatment Providers, who spoke to lawmakers at Thursday's meeting.
"It's everything from billing for services that don't occur, billing for clients sitting at a provider's home, to identity theft and patient brokering," he said, adding that the alleged criminal practices have resulted in defrauding insurance providers and families of millions of dollars.
Schmidt said the alleged fraud isn't widespread and that "most" of the more than 300 licensed residential treatment centers in the state are not dishonest. But the problems erode public trust, which is already an issue in an industry that deals with matters of substance abuse and mental health.
Allison Ramirez, a former employee at a treatment center that used to be called Utah Rehab Specialists, told lawmakers in November that she thought her job would be "the job of my life … helping addicts and alcoholics recover."
But her prospects soured when she discovered various "illegal practices" going on at work. She said she is still receiving fraudulent insurance cards at her home address, which Ramirez alleges her employer used to enroll clients in insurance plans.
"When it comes to addiction, everyone has a family member or some story they can talk about," Mike Isom, a former patient consultant and founder of Emerald Improvement Wellness Center, told the task force. He applauded lawmakers' efforts to develop a standard of care, as addicted Utahns and their families "deserve to know what they're getting when they enroll in a program."
Sanpei had planned to have a draft bill for the group to look over on Thursday, but he said the issue is more complicated than he anticipated. He is looking to better define what is required by providers to be licensed, develop standards by which facilities can be evaluated, allow insurers to look at the books of entities billing for their enrollees, and prohibiting patient brokering in the state.
Isom said kickbacks and payouts to headhunters, who pick up new clients discharged from prisons and jails or at nearby gas stations, "are absolutely ridiculous."
The issues are "something that the provider community has been concerned about for a number of years," said Brent Kelsey, assistant director at the Utah Division of Substance Abuse and Mental Health. He said it is both "embarrassing and aggravating that anybody would take advantage of someone who needs addiction treatment."
"Not all providers act like this," Kelsey said, adding that Utah has "outstanding providers who have dedicated their lives to help people recover."
He said he is committed to promulgate quality standards, educating the public with a more transparent system.
Cecchini, a retired architect, said that since his son's death, he dedicates a lot of time to educating parents and pushing for change.
"I'm not an expert on substance abuse disorder, only an expert on losing my son," he said. "Sometimes the loss of a loved one makes you an expert very quickly."
