Acadia Healthcare (NASDAQ:ACHC), one of the largest operators of behavioral health centers in the U.S., is holding people against their will to maximize insurance payouts, alleged a New York Times report on Sunday.
In at least 12 of the 19 states where Acadia (ACHC) operates psychiatric hospitals, dozens of patients, employees and police officers have notified authorities that the company was detaining people in ways that broke the law, the report stated, citing records.
In a statement to Seeking Alpha, the company called the report's assertions inaccurate.
According to the report, some patients who came looking for routine mental health care found themselves sent to Acadia (ACHC) facilities and locked in.
The company used laws meant for people who pose an immediate danger to themselves to hold patients who appeared not to have met those legal standards, the report added, citing records and interviews.
The report alleged that Acadia (ACHC) held patients for financial reasons rather than medical ones.
Acadia (ACHC) utilizes a number of strategies to convince insurers to pay for longer stays, the report said, citing employee interviews.
"Acadia has exaggerated patients’ symptoms. It has tweaked medication dosages, then claimed patients needed to stay longer because of the adjustment. And it has argued that patients are not well enough to leave because they did not finish a meal," the New York Times alleged. "Unless the patients or their families hire lawyers, Acadia often holds them until their insurance runs out."
"Decisions on patient care, including how long treatment may be necessary, are never business decisions made by the Company," said Acadia (ACHC). "The characterization of the few historic cases cited does not represent all facts influencing complex medical decisions made by multi-disciplinary teams led by psychiatrists."
Acadia Healthcare is holding patients against their will to increase insurance payouts: NYT
byu/Bluehorsesho3 inwallstreetbets
Posted by Bluehorsesho3
13 Comments
Bullish
Id say bearish tbh…
NYT talking about you is not thaaaaat bullish…
It can be … But I dunno… Maybe not this time?
Investors do not care about company ethic, bullish
Hmm. Seems like San Francisco needs Acadia
more cash flow! bullish!
Puts
They aren’t the only ones doing this kind of thing. Lot of rehab places act like this while being garbage at actual rehab, they’re basically just insurance payment imprisonment mills.
Old peoples homes have been doing this shit for decades. Then they fear monger when you try to take your loved ones home by saying “if anything happens to them you could be found criminally negligent.”
Should watch. I care a lot. Good movie
Atrium doing similar. Except they hold babies. And drag checkout time as long as possible to bill you $300/hr room fee.
I been too a few mental homes OSU was the best but literally if you breathe wrong they will hold you longer once you there it’s at they discretion to let you go might have been because I was minor for most of those visits but it’s not just them that does that honestly
Working in psych, I have learned that private, for profit psych hospitals are good at holding people until the insurance stops paying and not a second longer.
And big pharma spends 20bn$ on ads per year to sell you addictive pills that’ll sort of help you with your diseases caused by the garbage food industry that also spends billions in ads to sell you their crap. Then, they tell you it’s a “you” problem and send you to a mental hospital where they won’t let you leave so they can charge more.
It’s the circle of life and you’re the eternal prisoner-cash-cow.