By Tom Horvath, PhD
“An intimate look inside the billion-dollar addiction treatment industry where young people are bought and sold for their insurance policies and ushered into a system designed to keep them sick.”
From Practical Recovery will host a free screening of this award-winning documentary on Thursday, 11/13/25, at 7:00PM, in the conference room of our building in La Jolla (just off I-5). Seating is limited. RSVPs are required, by emailing Susie.Lee@practicalrecovery.com.
A brief discussion period with the producer and Dr. Horvath will occur at the conclusion of the 81-minute screening.
In 2013 Practical Recovery organized a screening of The Business of Recovery. That film focused on how poorly addiction treatment can be provided, and how it can generate enormous profits. The Shuffle keeps its focus on exactly how those profits can be accumulated by fraudulent operators. Those familiar with the industry may have heard the term “body broker.” These brokers fraudulently generate money for themselves, the rehabs they work with, and even the clients (in the form of kickbacks). With all this money for “commissions” it is not surprising that there is very little money for or interest in providing meaningful treatment. As the film identifies, in the classic body brokering scheme, a relapsing patient is profitable, but a successfully recovering patient not at all.
As The Business of Recovery did, The Shuffle follows several clients over years, as they navigate treatment experiences, which range from the fraudulent to the helpful. The director opens the film by asking, how could a treatment process that was so helpful to me be such a disaster for others?
The film also raises questions about the direct or indirect involvement of A. Thomas McLellan, PhD, in body brokering profit making. Dr. McLellan is a very well-known addiction treatment researcher and the former head of the federal Office of National Drug Control Policy (ONDCP). Although I have regularly disagreed with Dr. McLellan on details, I have respected his work. These allegations are unsettling. The film does not resolve them.
Between 2013 and 2025 the addiction treatment industry has grown substantially. The effectiveness of treatment apparently has not. The fraud appears to be no better and may be worse. How does this happen? Although the film presents more diagnosis than treatment plan, we may in the discussion period consider positive steps to support.
Interested in the film, The Shuffle? You might also be interested in, The Business of Recovery
