“Bold action” is needed says Senate Finance Committee Chair Ron Wyden, to address a long-term series of horrific abuse and neglect by residential and outpatient facilities owned and operated by hospital chain Acadia Healthcare.[1] Just this month alone, the New York Times published three different articles exposing a widespread systemic series of sexual and physical assaults, neglect, and entrapment by psychiatric facilities owned and operated by Acadia.[2]This nationwide attention comes after a bombshell May 2024 Senate Committee on Finance Staff Report published following a two-year investigation of four major residential treatment facility (“RTF”) operators. That report reveals that child patients at Acadia facilities (and three other RTFs: Universal Health Services, Devereux Advanced Behavioral Health and Vivant Behavioral Healthcare) are regularly subjected to unsafe and unsanitary conditions.[3]
As outlined by the New York Times, the neglect, abuse, and poor decision making at Acadia’s facilities is deeply embedded in the hospital chain’s culture. Two reporters that spent months looking into the chain’s practices at its nineteen different psychiatric hospitals found that patients were held against their will for financial rather than medical reasons.[4] Per New York Times Reporters Jessica Silver-Greenberg and Katie Thomas, the facilities would hold patients involuntarily until their health insurance ran out to maximize payouts beyond the time frame medically needed. In at least twelve of the nineteen states in which Acadia operates, including Pennsylvania, law enforcement has been alerted to the issue. Judges have had to intervene to force Acadia to release patients who were paying up to several thousand dollars a day. Publicly filed lawsuits across the country also contain allegations against the company for forgery, short-staffing, patients escaping, and the failure to prevent injuries and suicide attempts.
Acadia is primarily funded by taxpayer dollars through government insurance programs like Medicare and Welfare. Its facilities are designed to provide short term care for those with acute behavioral needs. The company is currently valued at $7 billion. While Acadia claims to have “cracked down” on patient safety, it has also agreed to settle a justice department investigation involving unnecessary inpatient stays. Acadia has a total of thirty-eight facilities in Pennsylvania and operates out of thirty-eight states. Its Pennsylvania locations include Belmont Behavior Health; Geisinger Behavioral Health; Cove Forge Behavioral Health; Tower Behavioral Health and Southwood Children’s Behavioral Healthcare amongst others.
The attorneys at Anapol Weiss strongly believe that RTF providers like Acadia must raise their standards. Accrediting bodies such as the Joint commission and internal staff members should implore mechanisms to provide oversight and closely monitor for non-compliance with more stringent safety standards. It is nothing shy of tragic when any treatment provider focuses more on profit than patient care.
Anapol Weiss is investigating instances of abuse cases at Acadia-owned facilities across the county and can be contacted here for free consultation.
[2] https://www.nytimes.com/2024/09/01/business/acadia-psychiatric-patients-trapped.html;
https://www.nytimes.com/2024/09/09/insider/acadia-healthcare.html;
https://www.nytimes.com/2024/09/15/opinion/involuntary-acadia-psychiatric-hospital.html
[4] See https://www.nytimes.com/2024/09/09/insider/acadia-healthcare.html
