Addiction Treatment Centers That Prey on the Most Vulnerable
According to the National Institute on Drug Abuse, millions of people receive substance abuse treatment each year, creating a need for high-quality, trustworthy facilities. Addiction treatment centers are growing across the country, and this growing industry is attracting scammers trying to take advantage of the vulnerable. Many places are made up of caring professionals who genuinely want to help their patients live a life of sobriety, but potential patients need to know how to avoid addiction treatment scams.
There is a long list of different scams being run in drug rehabs, mostly insurance fraud. One of the most prevalent scams is dishonest treatment facilities that give kickbacks to recruiters who refer patients with good insurance. Once patients have entered their facility, they rack up their insurance bills with tens of thousands of dollars for all sorts of treatments or laboratory tests. Sometimes the patients aren’t even receiving those treatments.
Rehab scams are hurting those individuals from getting the help they desperately need and creating a stigma for other addicts to assume that rehab does not work. But if you are looking for help for addiction, do not be discouraged by this news. Knowing how to look out for rehab scams and how to find a reputable place, you can get the right help to find long-term sobriety.
Many people use search engines to find rehab facilities near them, and scammers use this to their advantage. They employ unethical addiction marketing practices by promising quick cures and using call centers that use aggressive sales tactics to pressure individuals into giving deposits. Some are even hijacking business listings of trustworthy rehabs to change their phone numbers to these call centers.
Google and other search engines have tried different ways to help counteract these scams. They suspended all drug rehab ads for a while, and even though they have better screening for scam rehabs, some still get through.
Fraudulent rehabs just trying to get insurance payouts have even gone as far as creating a cycle of addiction to turn a more significant profit. They will extend a patient’s stay at their facility until the insurance runs out and then send them to a “sober living facility,” which is no more than a flophouse. These places look away from drug use and sometimes even encourage it, so the individual relapses and need to go back to the treatment facility and rack up a whole new insurance bill. This process creates a cycle of returning to rehab repeatedly and never getting the real help they need.
Drug Rehab Scams in Orange County
Substance abuse centers have a long history of illegal conduct, just as in many other areas of medicine and healthcare. Check out some of the most common forms of drug rehab scams to learn how to avoid addiction treatment scams:
- Guarantees: There is no standard timetable for recovery, and any place promising a full recovery in a set time, is lying. Every individual’s addiction and recovery journey is unique and requires a personalized treatment plan. A good rehab will let you a general idea about how long healing should be for that person and never pressure you to stay longer than you feel comfortable. They are always flexible to change the program as treatment progresses.
- Short Programs: Any program that promises recovery in two weeks is also deceitful. There is no way to complete rehabilitation in that time frame successfully, and highly successful programs are at least one to three months or even longer.
- Detox is the entire program: Some facilities claim they can cure your addiction with just detox. There is no “cure” for addiction; it is a chronic disorder that can be successfully managed through proper rehabilitation. Individuals learn to understand triggers and find healthy coping alternatives to live a long life of sobriety. Drug detox is just one of the first steps for recovery.
- Uses only herbal remedies: Natural ingredients are beneficial in finding sobriety and can help curb cravings as well as be part of the treatment regimen. But they cannot be relied on solely to treat the root of the addiction. There is no miracle pill to “cure” addiction.
Kickback Schemes in Orange County Drug Rehabs
In 2021, a U.S. Justice Department investigation led to criminal charges against ten defendants for kickback schemes at substance abuse centers in Orange County. These defendants included substance abuse treatment owners and recruiters getting kickbacks for referring patients to specific rehab centers, laboratories, and sober living facilities. Facility owners assigned values to patients based on their insurance payout and then paid those recruiters kickbacks for every patient they referred to their treatment facility.
Kickback schemes like this have taken advantage of the US’s opioid crisis. With the growing number of overdose deaths each year, people are more desperate than ever to get help for their addiction. They deny proper support to the vulnerable and solely care about turning more significant profits.
How to Avoid Addiction Treatment Scams
The country is filled with trustworthy, successful rehabilitation centers that have helped millions recover. If you are looking for a substance abuse treatment center, here is what you can do and what to look for to know how to avoid addiction treatment scams:
- Read reviews on third-party sites: Do not go by the reviews rehab places post on their website. Find their business listing page on search engines and social media platforms to see what real people are saying about them.
- Call and ask lots of questions: Don’t be afraid of asking too many questions. A good treatment facility will always be happy to walk you through their process and be transparent about their program. When their treatments work, they have nothing to hide.
- Tour the facility: It is always a good idea to physically tour the facility whenever possible. You can see if their website pictures are accurate and how their current patients are doing.
- Check their accreditation: A facility can claim any accreditation on its website. Be sure to look up the accreditation they claim and even call the accreditation board to verify they are truthful.
- Research their therapists and medical professionals’ license: Again, anyone can claim any licensing on their website. Most states have their own requirements for licensing and certification, and it is easy to verify their educational claims through state medical boards.
- Individualized care: Tailor-made programs are the most effective in treating addiction. Every addict has their own root cause of addiction, and every patient responds differently to each form of therapy. A good program will help them explore different treatments to find what suits them best.
- Diversity of options: A good treatment program will provide patients with many evidence-based, holistic, and experimental treatments to ensure truly personalized care.
- Residential care: Studies have shown that inpatient care is the most effective form of rehabilitation. In some cases, residential care is not possible due to home or work obligations, but even short-term inpatient programs would give the person the best chance to recover.
- Variety of length programs: There is no standard length of time for every person entering rehab. A center that offers different length programs shows they prioritize every person’s unique journey and circumstances.
- Continued care: Look for facilities that have an alumni program; it means they care about their patients and their sobriety in the long run. Offering continued care after their program is over means they genuinely want their patients to avoid relapse.
Overall when trying to know how to avoid addiction treatment scams, you should look for a facility that offers individualized care and recognizes that recovery is a long process. A legitimate rehab knows there are no easy solutions and will walk the long road of recovery with you.
Addiction Treatment You Can Trust at Muse
Muse Treatment is a recovery center you can trust. From the moment you call (800) 426-1818, you will be met with caring addiction specialists who will answer any questions you may have and help you figure out if Muse Treatment is the right fit for you, with zero pressure.
We offer drug and alcohol detox, inpatient rehab, outpatient rehab, and a sober living facility that will help ensure you are getting the proper help throughout your recovery journey. Muse Treatment features different types of therapies and treatments that target all parts of addiction and get to its root. We help our patients learn new coping mechanisms to successfully reintegrate into their lives and manage their addiction in the long run.
Through one-on-one counseling and group therapy, patients will identify and heal the aspects that led them to substance abuse. By helping patients build community within each other, they will never feel alone in their program and gain a life-long support system to continue lifting one another up.
If you or a loved one is struggling with addiction or would like more details on how to avoid addiction treatment scams, please give us a call today. We are always here to answer any of your questions and help set you up with a tour of our facilities.
