Wisconsin substance center owes $2m in Medicaid fraud case

MILWAUKEE - A federal judge has ruled that a now-shuttered Wisconsin substance abuse center and its CEO owe the state and federal government more than $2 million in a Medicaid fraud case.

Online court records show U.S. District Judge J.P. Stadtmueller ruled Tuesday that Brookfield-based The Healing Center LLC and its CEO and lone practitioner, Dr. Siamak Arassi, are liable for $2.3 million.

The U.S. Department of Justice sued the center and Arassi in 2019. The lawsuit alleged Arassi ordered prescriptions for Vivitrol, an anti-addiction drug, in the names of former patients and billed Medicaid for reimbursements, the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel reported Friday. He stockpiled the medicine and sold it to patients for more than $1,000 a month, the newspaper reported.

Arassi said in a statement posted on his website that he closed the clinic because he was tried of being harassed by "vindictive" regulators, including the Justice Department and the Wisconsin Medical Examining Board.

"Shame on them for treating me so badly," he wrote.