{"id":17926,"date":"2024-12-07T09:00:23","date_gmt":"2024-12-07T10:00:23","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/?p=17926"},"modified":"2024-12-07T10:23:18","modified_gmt":"2024-12-07T10:23:18","slug":"acadia-healthcares-methadone-clinics-face-fraud-complaints","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/?p=17926","title":{"rendered":"Acadia Healthcare\u2019s Methadone Clinics Face Fraud Complaints"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Every day at dawn, tens of thousands of people begin lining up at Acadia Healthcare\u2019s addiction clinics to get a cup of methadone. The daily dose staves off opioid withdrawal and keeps many from turning to dangerous street drugs like fentanyl.<\/p>\n

The for-profit chain of 165 methadone clinics \u2014 the country\u2019s largest \u2014 has generated more than $1.3 billion in revenue since 2022. It is \u201ca business that we continue to feel great about,\u201d Acadia\u2019s chief executive told investors this year.<\/p>\n

That business has been built in part on deception, a New York Times investigation found.<\/p>\n

Methadone is a narcotic, and the clinics are heavily regulated by federal and state governments. In addition to handing out methadone, the clinics are required to provide counseling and other services, like drug testing.<\/p>\n

But Acadia often fails to provide that counseling, according to five dozen current and former employees in 22 of the 33 states where the company has clinics. Instead, employees at times falsify the medical records that Acadia uses to bill insurers, according to the employees and internal emails.<\/p>\n

Sometimes a counseling session recorded in a patient\u2019s medical chart is simply a chance encounter. For example, medical records for a patient in Iowa show she had a 40-minute counseling session in December 2023, but the patient said in an interview that it was actually a hallway chat that lasted less than five minutes.<\/p>\n

Acadia\u2019s business is built on volume. Its counselors carry caseloads that are sometimes more than double the limit set by state regulators, according to employees and inspection records. With so many patients, the clinics can become assembly lines, offering little more than a cup of methadone.<\/p>\n

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Every day at dawn, tens of thousands of people begin lining up at Acadia Healthcare\u2019s addiction clinics to get a cup of methadone. The daily dose staves off opioid withdrawal and keeps many from turning to dangerous street drugs like fentanyl.The for-profit chain of 165 methadone clinics \u2014 the country\u2019s largest \u2014 has generated more than $1.3 billion in revenue since 2022. It is \u201ca business that we continue to feel great about,\u201d Acadia\u2019s chief executive told investors this year.That business has been built in part on deception, a New York Times investigation found.Methadone is a narcotic, and the clinics are heavily regulated by federal and state governments. In addition to handing out methadone, the clinics are required to provide counseling and other services, like drug testing.But Acadia often fails to provide that counseling, according to five dozen current and former employees in 22 of the 33 states where the company has clinics. Instead, employees at times falsify the medical records that Acadia uses to bill insurers, according to the employees and internal emails.Sometimes a counseling session recorded in a patient\u2019s medical chart is simply a chance encounter. For example, medical records for a patient in Iowa show she had a 40-minute counseling session in December 2023, but the patient said in an interview that it was actually a hallway chat that lasted less than five minutes.Acadia\u2019s business is built on volume. Its counselors carry caseloads that are sometimes more than double the limit set by state regulators, according to employees and inspection records. With so many patients, the clinics can become assembly lines, offering little more than a cup of methadone.We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and\u00a0log into\u00a0your Times account, or\u00a0subscribe\u00a0for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber?\u00a0Log in.Want all of The Times?\u00a0Subscribe.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":17928,"comment_status":"close","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-17926","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-lifestyle"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17926","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=17926"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17926\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":17929,"href":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17926\/revisions\/17929"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/17928"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=17926"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=17926"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=17926"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}