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 employees in ways that broke the law, the report stated, citing records.
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.”
Acadia Healthcare (ACHC) did not immediately respond to a Seeking Alpha request for comment.
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