Illinois residents with good insurance targeted by Florida provider

It’s not a new story: in states where treatment capacity is limited and waiting lists predominate, Florida — where treatment providers are plentiful — has become the end destination for families desperate to get their loved ones into recovery. In this article, we focus on one such provider — Banyan Treatment Center — and its marketing methods, which are not unusual for the field. Banyan has a residential treatment center in Pompano Beach and a detoxification facility in Stewart, and it recently opened an intensive outpatient program (IOP) in Naperville, Illinois. According to Eric Oakes, executive director, 95 percent of the patients in Florida have out-of-network insurance coverage. The other 5 percent are self-pay. “We don’t take Medicaid, we don’t have in-network contracts,” said Oakes, noting that very few Florida providers are innetwork with insurance companies. See Banyan page 2