Continued raids on Palm Beach County operators snare treatment provider

Law enforcement raids of Palm Beach County, Fla., addiction treatment and sober-living businesses, and arrests of some owners, continue at a brisk pace. Last week, a treatment center operator who had previously served prison time for fraud was arrested and charged with multiple counts of patient brokering, the Palm Beach Post reported.

Among the businesses of James Tomasso, who the newspaper reported had formed addiction treatment organization Global Recovery Resources just over a year ago, is the Pathways 2 Recovery treatment center in Boca Raton. An arrest report states that Tomasso paid more than $68,000 to the operator of the Infinity House recovery residence in Delray Beach in order to receive referrals of sober-living dwellers to the treatment program.

The Post reported that 19 arrests of individuals in the treatment and recovery support fields have been made in Palm Beach County since last October. The ethical problems in the industry have led to numerous calls for legislative reform this year, with proposals that include a strengthening of the state's law against patient brokering and a requirement that the field's marketing professionals be state-licensed.