Avoiding addiction treatment scams
The Attorney General’s Office has received multiple reports of attempts to recruit Massachusetts residents with substance use disorder to travel to so-called “treatment centers” in Arizona, California, or Florida. These recruiters often use texts or social media to recruit patients. The recruiters may offer to pay for airfare and health insurance to cover the costs of treatment.
Category: Good Ethics
Model Patient Protection And Treatment Ethics Act
This is a lovely suggested model of a treatment ethics law that could use your attention. It was created by the National Alliance for Model State Drug Laws.
Read it. If you like what it says, ask your legislators what they are doing to accomplish those patient safety goals.
Important Questions For a Treatment Center for your loved one.
NAATP Releases Treatment Provider Guidebook
Cracking down on abuses
County passes registry for some drug rehab centers to crack down on abuses
In what could be a first in California, licensed addiction treatment providers will be required to register annually with the Orange County Health Care Agency – and disclose webs of related businesses, such as urine- and blood-testing labs, pharmacies, real-estate-holding companies that manage sober living homes and the like.
A Federal answer to body brokering?
The Health 202: How the opioids bill could halt exploitation of addicted Americans
Much of the 660-page opioids package President Donald Trump could sign this week aims at expanding access to treatment and limiting opportunities for people to become addicted in the first place. But a five-page provision near its end seeks to protect drug-addicted Americans from a strange and particularly egregious kind of exploitation.
Treatment CEO’s ask for increased regulation.
In a Hearing About Addiction Treatment Companies’ Sketchy Advertising Practices, CEOs Ask for More Regulation
At a hearing this week investigating the addiction treatment industry’s sketchy marketing practices, various industry representatives said they agreed that their peers need more regulation-but that their own business practices were kosher. “We support the committee’s efforts to clean up the practices that are harming us all,” said Marvin Ventrell, executive director of the National Association of Addiction Treatment Providers.
ASAM Public Policy Statement on Ethical Promotion and Patient Recruitment by Addiction Treatment Programs
Public Policy Statement on Ethical Promotion and Patient Recruitment by Addiction Treatment Programs
Full Policy Statement Background As addiction treatment has evolved, different models of treatment have been created. The evolution of treatment models has not guaranteed access to evidence-based care. Insurance coverage has expanded, and more people can now find treatment in many different forms and settings.
Predatory behavior on Facebook
Predatory behavior runs rampant in Facebook’s addiction support groups
Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg has spent a year acting as a cheerleader for community support groups, especially those focused on addiction recovery. But scratching the surface of these organizations reveals the need for a referee, instead. Without that, there’s nothing to protect the most vulnerable people on the platform from this impenetrable tangle of altruism and e-commerce.
Legislators taking aim
Legislators taking aim at scams in the drug rehab industry
Eighteen of his friends lost the addiction battle in just the past two years, the most recent in October – in a sober living home. “The road to this bill is paved with dead bodies,” said Ryan Hampton, a writer and addiction recovery activist who supports California Senate Bill 1228, also known as the Substance Use Disorder Patient Protection Act.
Does the proposed legislation have enough teeth to be effective?
