Rehabs prey on addicts stuck in the ‘Florida Shuffle’

(NewsNation) — For many Americans struggling with addiction, the holidays can be especially challenging.

Known among those in recovery as the “Bermuda Triangle,” the combination of Thanksgiving, Christmas and New Year’s presents a challenge every year — as things like family dynamics, abundant alcohol and stressful schedules can be too much for some.

The hope of sobriety for many starts at a rehab facility. But those facilities can vary widely – and there’s little regulation keeping them from preying on the most vulnerable.

It’s known as the “Florida Shuffle” and in 2016, Brianna Jaynes was desperate for help.

Jaynes spent years addicted to pills and heroin. She searched online for treatment centers, hoping to stay close to home in upstate New York.

Instead, she says she was told to head to Florida.

“So automatically, I thought this was great,” Jaynes said. “I told my family I was gonna go for a month and I was gonna get my life together.”

But what she found in Florida, she says, wasn’t the quick help she expected.

“Some of these places were dirty,” she said. “There is no food. You were literally in these awful neighborhoods.”

In a matter of about six months. Jaynes says she bounced around, landing in dozens of drug rehab facilities.

“We go on a cycle of like traveling from place, to place, to place, to place until I had gone to like at least 24 facilities,” she said.

Jaynes had unknowingly become a pawn in a billion-dollar industry accused of making money off addiction.

In Florida, it’s coined the nickname, “The Florida Shuffle.”

Brokers lure drug addicts to certain treatment centers, which then give those brokers kickbacks from insurance payments.

There are close to 1,500 drug treatment centers in the U.S. with more than 1.6 million clients.

Florida has hundreds of those rehab facilities, earning it the name, “The Recovery Capital.”

The “shuffle,” is fueled in part by federal laws requiring insurance providers to cover addiction care.

In recent years, the state of Florida has worked to change its perception. The Florida Association of Recovery Residences (FARR) was founded in 2011 and aims to make sure treatment centers are up to par.

“Certification for one thing, you know, that’s been a big game changer,” said Heidi Matheny, director of operations at FARR. “A lot of law enforcement has shut bad actors down. So, you know, either put them in jail or put them out of business, and many municipalities have imposed an ordinance to require sober living environments to be FARR certified if they’re going to participate in their communities.

Jaynes left Florida and went back to New York where she eventually got the help she needed.

Today, the now 28-year-old is seven years sober, a nurse, a mom of two and a fierce advocate for addiction recovery in honor of her own journey and in memory of her sister, Whitney, who died of a drug overdose.

But part of Jane’s story will always be what she says happened to her in Florida.

“They’re on every corner and you go to South Florida, they’re everywhere. They are on every street. It’s like two per street where there’s a rehab recovery home. There’s lots of meetings, they call it the recovery capital, but it’s really the relapse capital.”

As shocking as the trend of profiting off of addiction can be, government officials are struggling with how to deal with it.

Dave Aronberg, State Attorney for Palm Beach County, Florida, who started the Sober Homes Task Force, has spent years trying to clean up the industry.

Aronberg spoke to NewsNation’s Elizabeth Vargas about the “Florida Shuffle” and how he hopes to clean up the cycle.

“Sometimes the marketer will give you $1,000 and tell you to go on a bender at the local motel,” Aronberg explained. “And then once you test dirty again, a few days later, you’re eligible to go back into the cycle.”

According to Aronberg, there is no limit on the number of times you can go through rehab yearly or in a lifetime.

“So the bad players actually are incentivized to keep doing this,” he said. “They get paid more, and the good guys get paid less.”