W. Va. AG files suit against substance abuse facility in Parkersburg

PARKERSBURG, W.Va. (WTAP) - A Parkersburg substance abuse treatment center is facing a lawsuit from the West Virginia Attorney General.

Attorney General Patrick Morrisey made the announcement Wednesday morning in Parkersburg.

Morrisey says Clean & Clear Advantage, LLC, which runs a substance abuse facility at the former federal courthouse on Juliana Street, filed bogus claims to the state’s Medicaid program.

“These are serious allegations and we intend to prosecute this civil action to the fullest extent of the law,” Attorney General Morrisey said. “We will keep working to bring to justice anyone who tries to defraud programs that serve as valuable resources to West Virginians.”

Wood County Prosecutor Pat Lefebure joined Morrisey at the announcement.

The lawsuit claims the facility submitted the fraudulent claims from May 2021 through January 2022.

A former employee of the treatment center, Clifford Marlowe, was indicted by a Wood County grand jury on two counts of felony Medicaid fraud and fraudulent schemes.

It is alleged that Clean & Clear hired and assigned Marlowe to perform certain types of therapy services even though he was not licensed or qualified.

Morrisey says Marlowe misrepresented his background on his application, and the company did not properly vet his background.

Morrisey says 52 Medicaid patients were treated by Marlowe.

The news release says the claims from those treatments totaled $78,889.92. The Attorney General’s Medicaid Fraud Control Unit is seeking three times that amount in its lawsuit.

Lefebure says that Marlowe is set for trial in January in Wood County.

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