Ex-Employee Pleads Guilty In Bucks Drug Treatment Scam (ICYMI)

YARDLEY, PA — A former employee of a Yardley-based drug treatment center pleaded guilty Tuesday to her role in a massive insurance fraud scheme that made millions by taking advantage of people trying to kick addiction.

Elsie Concepcion, 40, of Pennsauaken, N.J., became the seventh person to plead guilty to charges over activities at Liberation Way, Pennsylvania Attorney General Josh Shapiro announced.
She pleaded to state charges of insurance fraud and conspiracy to commit insurance fraud.

Concepcion was one of 11 people charged in March with operating what prosecutors say was a fraudulent drug and alcohol treatment center. She was accused of purchasing pre-paid credit cards to pay for patients' insurance policies and calling insurance companies, pretending to be several different female patients, to make premium payments.

"The employees of Liberation Way knowingly participated in a multi-million dollar scheme to exploit the opioid, heroin, and fentanyl crisis for their own personal gain," Shapiro said. "These employees were entrusted to help individuals suffering from substance use disorder, but instead they defrauded the system and left patients worse off than when they first entered the treatment centers.

An eighth person accused, Scott Collins, 45, of Marlton, N.J., continued his case Tuesday in Bucks County Court of Common Pleas.

Liberation Way had drug and alcohol treatment centers in Yardley, Bala Cynwyd and Fort Washington. In August, Liberation Way's co-founder and former CEO, Jason Gerner, 46, of Shamong, N.J., pleaded guilty for his role in the fraud.

The charges in the case were the result of an 18-month grand jury investigation into nine businesses associated with Liberation Way. Prosecutors say the investigation unveiled "a sophisticated, multi-layered scam that took advantage of vulnerable people."

While doing so, Liberation Way became a $40 million company in less than three years, with billings to various insurance companies in excess of $100 million.

Based in Yardley with locations in Bala Cynwyd and Fort Washington in Montgomery County, Liberation Way and associated companies illegally secured patients' insurance policies, then provided "treatment that was sub-standard, medically unnecessary, or sometimes nearly nonexistent," prosecutors say.

One of the techniques prosecutors describe is the use of so-called "sober homes." Patients, they say, would be directed to live at unlicensed, company-owned residences so Liberation Way could maximize the amount of treatment time it could bill to insurance companies.

The company ran daily shuttles from the sober homes to treatment locations and patients were forced to adhere to the drivers' schedules and not free to come and go, as is typical for outpatient treatment, the AG's office said.

One location on Stump Road in North Wales was known as "the party house," prosecutors say.

There, patients encountered "unsavory or even unsafe situations where the temptation to relapse was rampant," according to prosecutors.

Some of the housing was co-ed and it was discovered that employees were engaging in sexual relationships with patients in treatment, the attorney general's office said.

Prosecutors also accuse Liberation Way of specifically targeting out-of-network patients so it could bill their insurance more and concocting a kickback scheme with a Florida company to conduct unnecessary urine tests on patients, sometimes as often as four times a day.

Patients who relapsed under Liberation Way's care would re-enter treatment at a higher level of care, resulting in even higher billing rates. Prosecutors say patients were cycled through treatment as many times as possible, sometimes as many as eight times.