| There is a drug and alchohol rehab center in Malibu Ca. called Seasons Recovery Center. Last November I checked my daughter into this place for treatment as they said they accepted our insurance. In addition I had to pay $18,000 in cash. I was told (in writting) that if they recovered more than $61,000 from my insurance company I would be reimbursed any overage up to the $18,000 I paid. After two months of treatment my daughter had to leave because Seasons said the insurance coverage would not cover the expenses. I continued to follow up over the next few months, and found in May of 2012 my insurance company had overpaid by about $8,000 at that point. I spoke to the owner Dr. Sheila Shilati Psy.D and asked for a refund of the overpayment. She was so nice, and said of course we will send you a refund of the $8,000 and then if the insurance company continued to pay they would send me the remainder of the $18,000. Within 5 minutes of that nice email, I got another email from Dr. Shilati that said "oh gosh, my attorney said that since we filed bankruptcy a couple of months ago, we can't pay you, sorry". So now Seasons has taken more money from my insurance company than they were owed, and refuse to pay me what they owe me. What a scam. I began to look further into these rehab centers and found that a group of investors gets together to buy a million dollar an up home in a location like Malibu, then lease that home back to their LLC which is the rehab center. They suck these poor families and alcoholics, drug addicts and mentally ill folks into their web, thinking this is a last resort and they can help my loved one. They take as much cash from these people and their families up front, pay for the real estate, and then file for bankruptcy when the time is right. They then go out form a new LLC and do it all over again making millions of dollars at the expense of the ill people they pretend to care for. Another interesting point I discovered is that they overbill the insurance companies like crazy for anything they can get away with. I showed my daughter the billing recaps for weekly tests, treatments, medication, etc. and she says that she never got half of what they billed. I don't know if this is illegal, but I suspect it is. I am going to contact the Secretary of State to see what can be done. Dr. Sheila Shilati Psy.D also is an owner of another rehab center called Serenity Malibu, and her Mother Minoo Shilati, Psy.D. owns a rehab called Vantage Point Recovery, also in California. Please don't get sucked into these scams. These are by no means the only ripoffs in the rehab industry, but certainly the ones that got me. I would love to hear from others who have been ripped off. Maybe we can file a class action suit. |
