Rotton Rehab

So, what can you do when you have someone you really care about who is addicted to drugs and you know you have to help them get into rehab? The largely unregulated business of rehab can be a nightmare since a lot of folks die anyway from their addictions even if you can get them to go to rehab. Your best chance for recovery is to find a Board Certified Addiction Specialist Medical Doctor who can prescribe the proper medications and follow up visits on a regular basis. But that is a new kind of specialist certification so good luck finding that special kind of doctor.

The flood of addicted drugs is still happening in society because our President takes large campaign contributions from companies like Novartis. So, he’s not going to get after the pharmaceutical companies.  Meanwhile it can be very difficult on your own to stop taking drugs or alcohol. So now we have an industry of addiction treatments that is bringing in $35 billion dollars a year. Society is making lots of money just supposedly trying to get you off drugs. So do they really want to stop their profits? Stop having people get rid of their addictions? Nope!

The National Institute on Drug Abuse lists more than 14,500 specialized drug treatment facilities. In recent years it has gotten easier for insurance companies to pay for rehab. But we have no clear definition of what exactly is rehab. The therapy can be just about anything. There are NO Federal standards for counseling practices or rehab programs. So here is where the abuse of nonsense programs go ramped and your loved one dies from little or no proper treatment. The vast majority of people in need of addiction treatment do not receive anything that approximates evidence-based care. Things are so bad now.

In Florida there is an epidemic of overdose deaths and fraud yet the centers claim that they have at least an 80% cure rate based on nothing but their own advertising. Medications like Naltrexone, Buprenorphine and Methadone are helpful but they aren’t even sure if the addict is taking their medication since often they only follow up with a phone call. At Cliffside Malibu, A month of treatment there can cost tens of thousands of dollars and just about any activity can be considered therapeutic. In Idaho as long as you are not operating a residential program for teens, you don’t need a license at all. In California, as long as you take private pay clients, anyone can start an outpatient center and no one will stop you. In Florida there is a booming business with rehab centers.

Insurance companies covers drug tests. So bad centers are profiting big time from tests. The more urine they take the more money they make. So for a single $30 store bought urine test can turn into $1,500 in payments from insurance companies. 5 tests a week from a single addict can add up to $7,500. 6 addicts at 5 tests per week equals $45,000. Bad rehab centers are making $2,300,000 per year just from urine tests. Urine is so valuable in the recovery industry that it is called liquid gold. Centers even hire people called junkie hunters looking for addict s who have insurance. There is more money to be made in relapsing than in recovery.

You can’t even find good unbiased information on rehab centers. Even those 800 phone numbers are not reliable because they too are making a profit from your call. It costs treatment centers between  $40 to $50 each time their phones ring.  A Google search will lead you to RehabViews.com but that place is owned by a for profit rehab center. There isn’t even a Consumer Reports anywhere to find out how centers really rate. To get that information you would need to file a public records request with the Department of Healthcare services and wait months for them to send you a pile of documents for them to send to you while someone is overdosing.

Trump’s war on drugs is fake news since he could care less on finding a solution to the lack of treatment, medications and fraud that is rampart while our people die every day from continued addictions.