Drug rehab call centers are in the sights of Congress. Eight of the nation’s drug and alcohol Addiction Treatment center call centers were sent investigation letters from Congress concerning patient brokering. You can read a list of those call centers that received the letters and what information Congress is requesting below. A buy rehab leads strategy is unpopular with many professionals in the drug and alcohol addiction industry. Even with its’ unpopularity these businesses have thrived over the years. Most likely due to many drug and alcohol addiction treatment center owners relying on short-term solutions to their long-term problem of maintaining a census.

Drug Rehab Call Centers Being Checked Out by Congress on Drug Rehab Lead Generation

Big brother is watching the drug and alcohol addiction treatment industry on many different levels. The strict patient brokering laws that were passed on July 1, 2017 for sober homes and addiction treatment centers in West Palm Beach, Florida have paved the road for the nation. The new “Florida Model” is one of the most positive things that has come out of Florida for the addiction treatment industry. California is now in the process with legislation to fight patient brokering, many more states will follow.

Unfortunately, the media in its’ frenzy to gain readers and viewers for advertising dollars have beat up Florida causing some ethical operators to close their doors. They were dubbed with the “Florida Shuffle” which should be the “national body shuffle.” The irresponsible news media coverage has caused many to seek treatment in other areas of the country. This hurt the ethical players and more importantly caused some to get treatment in other areas that are worse than Florida. Forbes magazine reported we are in a 35 billion dollar a year industry, and NBC news reported that Florida only accounts for 1 billion. Florida is certainly not the worst state concerning patient brokering. The media in its’ slanted coverage, unknowingly may have caused life threatening situations to many. It will be interesting to see if the media does a story covering drug rehab call centers across the nation.

Addiction Treatment Centers Competing in a Red Ocean

Many addiction treatment centers think they cannot compete with the big players in the sandbox due to their lack of education on proven Drug Rehab marketing strategies. They see the bigger players spending over six figures a month on addiction treatment marketing and resort to a quick fix. The quick fixes for their drug rehab lead generation include a buy rehab leads strategy from drug rehab call centers, soon to come again Google AdWords and the one trick pony cookie cutter solutions offered by the large drug rehab marketing agencies that rely on the churn of the 14,000 treatment centers across the US.  Florida was hit with a double whammy with the new laws passed on July 1, 2017 and then again with Google restricting drug and alcohol addiction treatment pay per click ads. Unfortunately, with the new investigation of congress on call centers, some will go back to AdWords if they qualify through Google.

Drug Rehab Call Centers Leads Strategy for Drug Rehab Leads

If the small to medium treatment centers did not waste their time and money on the short term solutions, but instead invested in a long-term organic strategy they would be much better off. It’s an interesting situation if you consider that many of the leads generated from call centers are not a good fit for the treatment centers. In addition, some shady drug rehab call centers sell the same lead to many centers. Once the center starts to complain they are not receiving leads, the call centers concentrate on sending a few well qualified leads. And now in Florida, it is illegal to sell the well qualified calls which are verification of benefits (VOB Calls.) If you are an addiction treatment center in Florida and are buying VOB calls, or if you are buying calls from a call center based in Florida you are at great risk including legal problems, felony charges, high fines and jail time.

Google AdWords Drug Rehab Marketing Strategy

It’s unfortunate that the small to medium size treatment centers revert to using AdWords. Consider this, pay per click accounts for 1.91% of the calls from page one of Google. Many for the these calls are not a good fit for the addiction treatment centers. The first three organic listings on page one of Google account for almost 70% of the page one clicks. In addition, they need to be ranking in the Google 3-pack on page one. It takes time and knowledge to rank on page one of Google. Many of the large one trick pony marketing agencies who have a hard time retaining the best marketing talent gloss over these critical elements. That is why it is extremely important to have marketing consultants driving your addiction treatment marketing machine. This also applies to the addiction treatment ancillary services providers lead generation strategies. Many of the nation’s best marketing consultants have left the large drug rehab marketing agencies because they know their worth. They have left the one trick pony cookie cutter agencies because these marketing agencies simply cannot afford to pay them well enough because they rely on the glitz and glamour. They are spending big bucks on their Executive salaries, conferences, airfares, high end restaurants and extravagant entertaining.

What Congress is Seeking from Drug Rehab Call Centers

Congress is seeking detailed and document answers to 10 questions regarding how these call centers have been operating. Here are the areas that are looking to get information on;

• operations, copies of policies and procedures,
• how they obtain new treatment center, detox or sober living clients
• how they refer out
• process calls, questions asked, information given, disclosure, and if staff have any certifications
• how payment is determined
• all signed contracts from treatment centers, detox’s and sober livings
• are they helping get health insurance
• all companies they are affiliated with
• disclosures on their websites
• complete disclosure of pay per click, AdWords paid advertising
• documented number of calls every month since 2013
• list of any organizations, all their emails and any communications they have dealt with that had license revoked or been shut down and why this happened
• A list of employees that have any criminal charges or any law suits to the call centers in relationship to patient brokering

They also need to make arrangements by June 12, 2018 to provide a briefing to the committee staff. Below are the 8 call centers that have been contacted by Congress. You can click on them and read the letters that were sent.

• American Addiction Centers
• Treatment Management Company
• Redwood Recovery Solutions
• Addiction Recovery Now
• Addiction No More
• Elite Rehab Placement
• Solutions Recovery Center
• Intervention Allies

The writing is on the wall for all the unethical operators in the drug and alcohol addiction treatment industry. Big brother is examining every business aspect of our industry call centers, drug labs, insurance, billing, treatment centers, detox’s and sober livings. They are gathering the needed information to take down patient brokering and help save lives.

We’d like to hear your thoughts on call centers being investigated, leave a remark below.

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