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Florida Rehab Centers
Florida's Ritzy Rehab Centers
Florida -- Palm Beach County in particular -- is home to a thriving recovery industry that increasingly caters to wealthy substance abusers.
Only when his wife threatened to leave him and take their young son did he check into the 80-bed Hanley Center in West Palm Beach. The center, he says, got him sober and saved his life.
Insurance helped, but Dash still paid $20,000 out of his own pocket for a month of treatment. "It was not an inexpensive proposition," says Dash, 57, now retired and living in Palm Beach Gardens. "For me, it was worth every penny."
 Hazelden Naples [Photo: Stormi Greener] Large Upscale Operators in Florida • Hazelden (Center City, Minn.) — Subsidiary: Hazelden Naples • Watershed Addiction Treatment Programs: Boynton Beach, Boca Raton and Lake Worth • Behavioral Health of the Palm Beaches, Lake Worth — Subsidiary: SeaSide, |
Dash's refuge is one of the largest and oldest addiction treatment centers in Florida. Hanley, a non-profit, was founded 25 years ago by Mary Jane and Jack Hanley, a former CEO of Monsanto, after she was treated for alcoholism. Today, the first month of in-patient rehab costs $32,000 for a shared room. Hanley recommends patients get three months of treatment, with stepped-down fees for the second and third months.
Hanley's business development director, Michael Walsh, says Hanley's price includes housing and meals, a swimming pool and gym, doctor and nurse consultations, therapy and tests.
"It's really expensive to do really good treatment," says Walsh. These days, he says, Hanley's price is just "middle of the road."
 Dr. Paul's at the Bay [Photo: Dr. Paul's at the Bay] |
The intense competition for clients like Dash who can pay those "middle of the road" prices is evident in several ways, including the eagerness of national chains to expand. Caron Treatment Centers, a Pennsylvania-based non-profit that operates facilities in Wernersville, Pa., Dallas and Boca Raton, is merging with Hanley, which will add 20 beds for a new program for adolescents or young adults at its West Palm Beach campus.
 "It's really expensive to do really good treatment," says Hanley business development director Michael Walsh. [Photo: Scott Wiseman] |
Several factors continue to drive the ritzy-rehab trend, most obviously, a supply of substance abusers willing and able to pay — in cash — for themselves or their children to detox in comfort. For the most part, the clients, not insurance companies, foot the bill. Many health insurers no longer automatically authorize a month of in-patient addiction rehab as they once did. Instead, insurers approve payments for treatment they determine to be appropriate, with policyholders picking up the rest of the tab.
In Treatment • Once at a center, patients begin detoxification and undergo medical, psychological and social evaluation. Then a treatment plan is developed: The patient begins a daily schedule of lectures, individual counseling, group therapy and specialized therapy (for grief, chronic pain, early-life trauma, relapse prevention and other ailments). Patients also may receive physical therapy, massages, etc. Psychiatric problems are treated with medication and counseling. |
