Join free screening of addiction treatment documentary Shuffle on Aug. 21

OLYMPIA, Wash. — One person, with the right policy and in the wrong hands, could be worth $1 million per year in fraudulent addiction treatment health insurance charges.

That’s part of the focus of Benjamin Flaherty’s film Shuffle, a 2025 documentary that shows a scheme in which clients are cycled through treatment centers with the goal of profit instead of treating people suffering from addiction.

Washington state Insurance Commissioner Patty Kuderer is sponsoring a free screening of the film on Friday, Aug. 21, to shed light on the evolving landscape of insurance fraud and a bill she proposed to increase the OIC’s ability to fight increasingly complex fraud schemes occurring in Washington state and across the country.

“Insurance fraud cases have gotten far more sophisticated over the last 20 years, but our capabilities to fight them haven’t kept pace,” Kuderer said. “This film is an excellent example of how the system’s being abused and how it harms some of our most vulnerable people.”

Doors open at 9:30 a.m. at the Criminal Justice Training Center in Burien. Kuderer will introduce the film before the viewing, which will be followed by a Q&A with Flaherty on the making of the documentary and the issues that prompted the project.

Learn more and RSVP for the free screening. 

Kuderer proposed legislation earlier this year to define insurance fraud as its own crime — a Class B felony — in state law. Billing an insurance company or consumer for services not provided and impersonating others in insurance-related claims or transactions would also be included as a crime, among other changes. Senate Bill 6031 unanimously passed out of the Senate but did not advance out of the House Consumer Protection & Business Committee.

Kuderer plans to propose a similar bill during the 2027 legislative session.

Shuffle follows three people over the course of three years who are trapped in an insurance-fueled cycle of treatment. Their stories provide the framework for a more public investigation with the help of an FBI informant, an insurance analyst and the former executive director of a Philadelphia-based treatment facility shuttered for fraud. Shuffle unravels a web of public policy and private interest preying on a vulnerable population for the sake of profit.

The film won the 2025 SXSW Film & TV Festival Jury Award for Best Documentary Feature.