CodeMax Medical Billing handles medical billing and claims for addiction recovery businesses. According to the lawsuit filed on August 28, 2026, CodeMax allegedly played fast and loose with its billing practices. CodeMax is one of 74 businesses named in the lawsuit. All of the named businesses are located in California. CodeMax recieved a portion of the claim.

The lawsuit alleges a three-part scam.
1. Manufacture the patients.
2. Manufacture the claims.
3. Maximize the illicit profits.

The lawsuit alleges that people received treatment one day after enrolling in BCBS. These people were enrolled in insurance in Oklahoma and then received treatment the next day in California. One example claimed a person was enrolled on March 1st, 2024, and the next day received treatment at New Life. This patient was billed from March 2, 2026, through April 1, 2026. They again recieved treatment from August 6, 2024, through August 30, 2024.

In another example, a person was enrolled in BCBS on March 1st. The next day, this person was receiving treatment at Freedom Recovery. Their treatment took place through March 22, 2024. On August 9, 2024, the patient received treatment at Connected Recovery in Van Nuys. The patient stayed until August 15, 2024. LH Blue Sky billed the patient from May 1, 2026, through June 1st; from June 5, 2024, through June 25; and finally from August 10 and 11. Sun and Moon billed a patient from May 1 through June 1st. HigherVision then billed this patient from August 18 through September 4, 2026. These patients provided burner or temporary email addresses.

Several facilities started billing for services within seven days of enrollment.
Freedom Recovery: 15 patients
Connected Recovery: 14 patients
Uplift Recovery: 10 patients
Vanity Wellness: nine patients
California Wellness: eight patients
LH Blue Sky: eight patients
Sadag: seven patients
Pure: seven patients
Granada Hills: seven patients
Vanity Detox: seven patients
Wish: six patients
Inspire Recovery: five patients
Ritz: five patients
Journey: five patients
Vita Nova: five patients

The manufacturing claims portion appears to be multilayered. BCBS alleges that defendants created claims based on pretense, identifying treatments that were not (or could have been) performed, and listing fake charges. CodeMax created claims for providers with inflated and fake charges. CodeMax submitted claims for the patient under different providers. CodeMax billed Patient A on August 14, 2024, at Vita Nova and Soul Detox. CodeMax billed Patient B on August 16, 2024, at California Wellness and Sun and Moon. A claim was filed for Patient C at Sun and Moon and California Wellness on August 17, 2024. Another patient had claims submitted on August 17 at Ritz Recovery and Granada Hills. California Wellness and Sun and Moon submitted claims for the same patient on August 18. New Breath and 4 Seasons also filed claims for the same patient on September 4, 2024.

Facilities also billed for more patients than they were allowed to treat. Granada Hills is allowed to house up to six patients at a time. It’s alleged that they exceeded that limit on multiple days between August and September. Ananda and Sun and Moon also had more patients than they were allotted. On several days, more than two-thirds of the patients were from BCBS of Oklahoma.

4 Season: 189 d days
Sun and Moon: 160 days
Freedom Recovery: 137 days
Connected Recovery: 128 days
Casa Leona: 123 days
New Breath: 114 days
360 Recovery: 110 days
Rise In Glendale: 105 days
Saint Lawrence: 105 days
Granada Hills: 97 days
Journey: 95 days
Soul Detox: 91 days
Ansuva: 91 days
EHG: 87 days
Believe Detox: 68 days
Ananda: 67 days
Aya: 65 days
HigherVision: 64 days
Clear Conscience: 60 days
Willpower Recovery: 54 days
Integrity Recovery: 53 days
Glendale Luxury: 53 days
Vanity Detox: 50 days

BCBS questions whether these patients existed. Either the patients never existed, or the facilities were over capacity.

The final component in the lawsuit alleges the maximization of illicit profits. CodeMax submitted electronic claims between 2023 and 2024. In August 2024, CodeMax advertised that it had found a way to skirt the algorithm. CodeMax started mailing claims. BCBC claims that CodeMax tested this system by mailing claims and repeatedly checking the claim status. The claim was 10 times the amount it should have been.

While CodeMax tested this new method, they drastically reduced the number of electronic claims. Once the new method worked, they quickly mailed in the backlog of claims. About a dozen test claims were submitted for Inspire Recovert, Vanity Wellness, or Vanity Detox.

August 28, 2024: 368 claims totaling $2,586.901
August 29, 2024: 570 claims totaling $4,061,489
August 30, 2024: 9 claims totaling $59,585
September 3, 2024: 1 claim for $8,084
September 4, 2024: 563 claims totaling $3,808,757
September 5, 2024: 943 claims totaling $6,234,851
September 6, 2024: 1 claim for $8,084
September 9, 2024: 81 claims totaling $476,524
September 11, 2024: 434 claims totaling $2,779.126
September 12, 2024: 56 claims totaling $363,423
September 13, 2024: 9 claims totaling $46,501

LA Wellness, Wish Recovery, Inspire Recovery, Vanity Detox, Geva Recovery, Willpower Recovery, Lakeridge, Uplift Recovery, Integrity Recovery, Deluxe Treatment, and West Valley all submitted claims for codes 0126 and 1002 for more then should have been submitted.

Here is the full list of facilities named in the lawsuit:
28’s REHAB
360 INTEGRATED RECOVERY INC
4 HEALTHY LIVING DETOX, INC
4 SEASON DETOX AND RECOVERY HOUSE INC
A1 TREATMENT CENTER
ALPHA RECOVERY CENTER, INC
ALTITUDE RECOVERY COMMUNITY LLC
ALTITUDE RECOVERY COMMUNITY NO. 2 LLC
ALTUS KEHAB LLC
AME HEALTHCARE GROUP LLC d/b/a VITA NOVA AT NEWPORT BAY
AMERICAN RECOVERY CENTER
ANANDA, INC. d/b/a ANANDA TREATMENT BEHAVIORAL HEALTH AND WELLNESS CENTER
ANSUVA INC
AYA REHAB CENTER LLC
BELIEVE DETOX CENTER INC
CA DRUG DETOX LLC
CALIFORNIA WELLNESS RETREAT, INC
CASA LEONA RECOVERY CENTER INC
CELEBRATED CONSULTING INC
CHC BEHAVIORAL HEALTH LLC
CLEAR CONSCIENCE TREATMENT CENTER LLC
COMFORT RECOVERY TREATMENT CENTER LLC
CONNECTED RECOVERY INC
DELUXE TREATMENT CENTER INC
EAGLE RECOVERY
EHG ENTERPRISES INC
ENCINO RECOVERY INC
ESSENCE HEALTH CARE LLC
FREEDOM DRUG AND ALCOHOL RECOVERY INC
GARRET RECOVERY CENTER
GEVS RECOVERY CENTER
GLENDALE LUXURY REHAB LLC
GRANADA HILLS TREATMENT CENTER LLC
HIGHERVISION GH INC
HOPE DETOX CENTER LLC
INSPIRE RECOVERY CENTER INC
INTEGRITY RECOVERY CENTER
JOURNEY OF A NEW LIVING
LA WELLNESS HOME INC
LAKERIDGE RECOVERY CENTER
LANDALE RECOVERY CENTER
LH BLUE SKY, INC
LION RECOVERY
LNA REALTY
MEDICHEX, INC. d/b/a LIFT OFF RECOVERY
NEW BREATH RECOVERY INC
NEW LIFE RECOVERY CENTER
NEW LIFE, INC
OASIS DETOX INC
OASIS REHABILITATION CENTER INC
PURE ADDICTION TREATMENT
REGGIE’S RECOVERY, LLC
RESILIENT RECOVERY TREATMENT CENTER
RISE IN GLENDALE SOBRIETY CENTER, INC
RISING LOTUS RECOVERY LLC
RITZ RECOVERY INC
SADAG TREATMENT SOLUTIONS, LLC
SAINT ANGEL RECOVERY CENTER, INC
SAINT LAWRENCE RECOVERY
SEOUOIA RECOVERY CENTER
SHADOW HILLS RECOVERY INC
SOUL DETOX AND RECOVERY INC
STAR CITY RECOVERY INC
SUN AND MOON REHABILITATION
TARZANA RECOVERY CENTER
TRANQUILITY RECOVERY CENTER, INC
TRINITY HEALTH ARTNERS LLC
UPLIFT RECOVERY CENTER LLC
VANITY DETOX CENTER INC
VANITY WELLNESS CENTER INCORPORATED
WILLPOWER RECOVERY CENTER, INC
WISH RECOVERY HOUSE LLC

The following facilities were named in the now dismissed lawsuit brought by BlueCross Blue Shield of Florida:
CA DRUG DETOX LLC
CLEAR CONSCIENCE TREATMENT CENTER LLC
COMFORT RECOVERY TREATMENT CENTER LLC
DELUXE TREATMENT CENTER INC
EHG ENTERPRISES INC
INSPIRE RECOVERY CENTER INC
LAKERIDGE RECOVERY CENTER
LNA REALTY
MEDICHEX, INC. d/b/a LIFT OFF RECOVERY
NEW BREATH RECOVERY INC
NEW LIFE, INC
SAINT LAWRENCE RECOVERY
SUN AND MOON REHABILITATION
UPLIFT RECOVERY CENTER LLC
VANITY DETOX CENTER INC
VANITY WELLNESS CENTER INCORPORATED

Hopefully, BCBS of Florida will refill the lawsuit.

The post BlueCross Blue Shield of Oklahoma sues CodeMax Medical Billing first appeared on Review Fraud.

Sadly, this wasn’t the only unprofessional video. In another one, the dentist pours alcohol in a patient’s mouth as a joke. In another one, the dentist pours alcohol in a patient’s mouth as a joke. I also found a new video showing the dentist praying to get a difficult patient’s voicemail. Another video shows a staff member washing her face with toilet water. One video shows the dentist getting annoyed on the phone with a patient. More videos appear on their Facebook page. Who seriously thought this was great content to show off the firm? The content is juvenile and off-putting.

Regardless of how you feel about Birch Dentistry’s social media posts, Google reviews are not the proper way to discuss them. Birch Dentistry appears to have removed the social media post, but they need to extract the others.

The post Birch Dentistry received a Negative Google Review over a Social Media post. first appeared on Review Fraud.

So what happened?

As it turns out, this same user posted that they recieved a warning on September 24, 2025. Google alerted them to having fake or incentivized reviews. They denied any wrongdoing. That strategy doesn’t seem to be working for them. As it turns out, this business has been running review contests off and on since July 2021. They didn’t stop after September 2025. They still did it as of August 2026. Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice, shame on me.

Deleting the Reddit post won’t make the problem go away. Google still has the warning on the Google Business Profile. They deleted the post after I explained why they lost their reviews. I suspect a competitor, or one of their competitors’ marketing agencies, reported them. If so, they will get reported again if they don’t stop. They need to stop the review contests and play by the rules.

The post Academy for Dental Assistants lost all its Google Reviews first appeared on Review Fraud.

BCBS is claiming that patients were being enrolled in BCBS and the very next day, they were receiving treatment in California. Uplift filled claims for 10 patients within seven days of enrollment. This is part of the dark side in the addiction treatment space. There are people who receive kickbacks to find people needing or looking for addiction treatment and get them admitted to facilities they partner with. It’s called Body Brokering. Step one is finding the person; step two is enrolling them in BCBS and flying them out for treatment. In the Florida lawsuit, it was alleged that the people behind this were using addresses tied to the Salvation Army and a local church. I don’t know what addresses were being used in the Oklahoma lawsuit.

The patients are flown from Oklahoma to California to receive treatment. Some of these people went to more than one facility. spencer zimmerman stated, “90 of the patients are from Oklahoma,” in their Google review. They wrote that review on July 14, 2024. Vanity Wellness Center in Woodland Hills was also named in both lawsuits. Ashley Wilson reviewed Uplift Recovery Center on October 2, 2023, and Vanity Wellness Center on August 16, 2023. Codmax submitted claims in 2023.

The lawsuit alleges that CodeMax submitted claims that exceeded the level of service patients received. In some cases, CodeMax submitted the same claims for two facilities on the same day. It appears CodeMax abused the system, and Uplift Recovery Center reaped the rewards. In February 2025, I investigated the reviews for almost 800 addiction treatment facilities and sober homes. Uplift Recovery Center and Vanity Wellness Center both appeared several times in reviews by people who reviewed more than one facility. I also saw evidence of people being flown out of state to California for treatment. People from Florida and Oklahoma showed up a lot.

Time will tell whether Florida BCBS refiles its lawsuit. It will be interesting to see what comes of the Oklahoma lawsuit and how it impacts the addiction recovery space. People are watching.

The post Uplift Recovery Center Named in a Second Blue Cross Blue Shield Lawsuit first appeared on Review Fraud.

For starters, how did a Google employee find out that a competitor flagged the reviews, and why did they tell Kurt? This is a privacy violation and unethical. Google needs to identify this employee and address the situation. Also, if this employee helped Kurt get the reviews reinstated, that needs to be investigated too. This practice is not allowed. I have heard that Google had a similar issue in the past and ended it.

Some of the reviews I am looking at violate Google’s TOS and should never have been reinstated. London Harker Injury Law has clients reviewing more than one of their locations. Clients may only review the office where they interacted. Clients leaving reviews for multiple locations violates the TOS and is considered review manipulation.

Google takes Fake & Misleading Content seriously. Contributions to Google Maps should reflect a genuine experience at a place or business, and a review or rating should reflect an actual experience with a business, and be genuine and unbiased. Identifying and removing Fake or Biased Content and instances of Rating Manipulation are part of how we keep maps trustworthy, reliable, and useful.

 Fake Engagement 

Contributions to Google Maps should reflect a genuine experience at a place or business. Fake engagement is not allowed and will be removed.

This includes:

• Content that is not based on a real experience or does not accurately represent the location or product in question. 
• Reviews or ratings that have been paid for, directly or in kind.
• Content that has been posted from multiple accounts by or at the request of one person.
• Content that has been posted using an emulator or other device tampering service, modified operating system, or other method to mimic genuine engagement, manipulate sensor data or results, or otherwise thwart or confuse normal operations.

We do not allow merchants or users to:

• Solicit or encourage the posting of content that does not represent a genuine experience.
• Offer incentives – such as payment, discounts, free goods and/or services – in exchange for posting any review or revision or removal of a negative review.
• Post content on a competitor’s place or business to undermine that business’ or product’s reputation.

Rating Manipulation

Contributions to Google Maps should reflect a genuine experience at a place or business. Rating Manipulation includes Incentivized or Biased Reviews, which are not allowed and will be removed from Maps.

This includes:

• Content that has been posted due to an incentive offered by a business – such as payment, discounts, free goods and/or services.
  • This includes content posted following requests for revision or removal of a review or rating in exchange for an incentive.
• Content exhibiting unusual volumes or patterns of review contributions that are indicative of efforts to manipulate a place’s rating
• Content that is based on a conflict of interest. A conflict of interest may include current or former employment, a contractual or consultory relationship, or other professional or personal affiliations that demonstrate a conflict of interest (such as industry competitors, familial relationships, etc.). 

Three TOS violations relate to clients posting reviews across multiple locations. It never ceases to amaze me that when I see these patterns of abuse, it’s for personal injury lawyers. I have previously identified Brandon J. Broderick and Morgan and Morgan doing the same.

If London Harker Injury Law wants to keep their reviews, they need to make sure their clients are not reviewing more than one location.

The post How did London Harker Injury Law lose its Google Reviews? first appeared on Review Fraud.

In this case, I have identified two possible culprits. First, the business offers free Wi-Fi for its customers. Google does remove reviews when they all come from the same IP address. The next likely culprit is that the business has QR codes for its cleints to scan to leave a review. I have seen a sharp uptick in businesses that have lost reviews using QR codes. If these were the only two issues, the business could contact Google and get most of the reviews back. This business deserves to lose more reviews.

This business started off offering a 5% discount in exchange for Google reviews in Febuary 2023. Then they switched and started offering a free joint in exchange for a Google review. Google needs to remove all or the reviews dating back to February 8, 2023. Google needs to email this business and tell them to stop this practice.

If you don’t want to be like LV Cannabis Boutique and lose reviews, don’t use a QR code to ask for reviews, don’t allow customers to use your Wi-Fi, and don’t offer a discount in exchange for reviews.

Update: While writing up this post, the Reddit user LVCannabis deleted the posts. They didn’t delete all of their comments on one of the posts. In one comment, they admitted to incentivizing reviews. “Fair point. We did have that promotion in the past. We’ve removed it now and changed our review process.”

The post Why did LV Cannabis Boutique lose 1900 Google Reviews? first appeared on Review Fraud.

Steve Miller left a 5-star review on September 19, 2019. Steve was named in a lawsuit against Starr Manufacturing on December 19, 2024. Stephanie Young left a review claiming she never hired them but drove by. Starr Manufacturing employee Kris Barlow wrote a 5-star review. Andrew Paul, another Starr Manufacturing employee, left a 5-star review. These four reviews could cost them $206,976.

Starr Manufacturing has been sued one other time for sexual harassment. They have a 2.9 Glassdoor Rating. CEO Andreas Foerster has a 44% approval rating. Only 40% of people would recommend Starr Manufacturing to a friend.

If Julie’s review is true, she will provide the documents in court. This could be a costly mistake for Starr Manufacturing. People are posting negative reviews on their Facebook page. Their Yelp profile hasn’t been hit. It could be because it’s listed as Starr Fabricating. It will be interesting to see how this plays out.

The post Starr Manufacturing sues over 1-Star Google Review first appeared on Review Fraud.

We have the brother-and-sister duo Phi D and Tri D. Phi has posted 306 reviews and has been a Yelp Elite for four years. Tri has posted 246 reviews and has been a Yelp Elite for four years as well. Next we have Anita L. Anita has posted 169 reviews and has been a Yelp Elite for three years. Finally, we have Rathana K, who has posted 91 reviews and has been a Yelp Elite for five years. We can’t tell which reviews are legitimate and which ones were contracted. A consumer would have cross-referenced the business review with the reviewer’s social media profiles. I decided to randomly check some of the businesses being reviewed. The second business I checked was CLEO Nail Bar in Pasadena, CA. I found several reviews from Yelp Elite reviewers. One of those reviewers, Tina T, left a review on July 7, 2026. On her Instagram, her profile states DM for Invites & Collabs.

Phi left a review for The Haven Detox in Blackwood, NJ on June 5, 2026. Her brother left a review for Indiana Center for Recovery in Bloomington, IN. I know both of these addiction treatment facilities well. In 2025, I mapped out the reviews for Yellowstone Ranch Recovery. By the time I was stopped, I had found 490 addiction treatment and sober living homes connected by people who reviewed at least one facility. Seeing these two facilities reviewed by a brother-and-sister duo from Southern California is alarming. Indiana Center for Recovery’s last live 5-star Yelp review was left on August 27, 2025. Several other 5-star reviews have been removed.

If these Yelp Elites are selling reviews to businesses, it hurts consumers and businesses that play by the rules. Yelp is rewarding these reviews with perks and special events. Yelp also gives Yelp Elite reviews more weight.

Time will tell if Yelp removes the reviews and their Elite status. Yelp needs to address this situation and end it once and for all. I have a link to another Yelp Elite suspected of doing the same thing; let’s see if Yelp finds them and takes any action.

The post Are Yelp Elites Being Paid to Post Fake Reviews first appeared on Review Fraud.

This act violates Google’s TOS.
We do not allow merchants to:
Offer incentives – such as payment, discounts, free goods and/or services – in exchange for posting any review or revision or removal of a negative review.

Has Brightview Cleaning Services done this in the past with others who left negative reviews? The business has only two other negative reviews. One review raises another red flag. In the review, they wrote, “I believe they outsource the cleaners.” As it turns out, Brightview Cleaning Services is a referral service. This makes their Google Business Profile ineligible. Google doesn’t allow lead-generation businesses to have a maps listing.

Google has the following restrictions and qualifications for Business Profiles:

Ineligible businesses

To qualify for a Business Profile on Google, a business must make in-person contact with customers during its stated hours.

For example, the following businesses are not eligible for a Business Profile:

• An ongoing service, class, or meeting at a location that you don’t own or have the authority to represent.
• Lead generation agents or companies.
• Brands, organizations, artists, and other online-only businesses.
• Rental or for-sale properties such as vacation homes, model homes, or vacant apartments.

Brightview Cleaning Services clearly states on the bottom of the website, “We are a referral agency.” They use the address of a business willing to rent out an office for a day or to receive mail. Needless to say, this address is also ineligible for a GBP. This business is not registered with the California Secretary of State, and San Diego has no DBA on record.

To recap, the address is a real office location; I can’t confirm they are registered online anywhere; they may have a city license; they are offering money to remove negative reviews; and they are subcontracting the work. You have no idea who is coming to your home or if you can trust the reviews.

Needless to say, Brightview Cleaning Services won’t be on Google much longer. I am going to report their GBP to Google for removal. They will be hard-pressed to get reinstated once they’re suspended. Hopefully, they don’t come back or start under a different business name.

The post Don’t Trust Brightview Cleaning Services in La Mesa first appeared on Review Fraud.

David started bringing up Devon’s looks, called him a douche, and made fun of him for posting photos with filters. It was on like Donkey Kong. David and Devon engaged in trading insults. Things took a dark turn when David started making homophobic remarks. David’s first homophobic remark was, “This ain’t a hook up queer bait”. He then followed up with, “Ok broke back mountain hahaha”. This is a reference to the movie Brokeback Mountain, where two male characters have an affair. The insults go from talking about each other’s looks to David questioning Devon’s sexual orientation. You can view the exchange here.

This all stemmed from a negative review. Alpen Haus currently has a 3.9 Yelp rating with 8 reviews. Devon did update his review after the homophobic DMs. I wonder if the other people who left negative reviews were contacted by David. Interestingly, David only mentioned the Google reviews and rating. I am not sure if he knows about the Yelp reviews.

David has a feature reel on his Facebook profile with three inspirational messages. It’s a shame that David didn’t take his own advice before he messaged Devon. Looks like Devon chose revenge.

Alpen Haus recently opened and is not off to a good start. It appears that they opened on July 30, 2026. If David keeps acting like this, they will be closed in no time. Hopefully, the owner(s) stop this practice or fire David to protect their business. He is a liability.

The post Alpen Haus Employee Lashes Out over Negative Review  first appeared on Review Fraud.