New Veteran's Drug & Alcohol Rehab Center Shuts Down After PA. Kept Denying Funding for Vets

[JPZenger]

Happy Memorial Day to all the Vets. They are getting screwed again.

The $3 Million Veteran's Sanctuary opened up less than a year ago in Allentown. It was a 32 bed facility run by the main non-profit provider of drug and alcohol treatment services in the area, and was designed to provide drug and alcohol services closer to home for Vets (vs. having to travel 1.5 hours or more to VA facilities). Unfortunately, it has already shut down because of lack of funding.

http://articles.mcall.com/2012-05-26/news/mc-allentown-veterans-sanctuary-20120525_1_veterans-sanctuary-treatment-trends-robert-csandl

Excerpts of Morning Call article:

"The program's demise has nothing to do with a lack of demand, Csandl says. The culprit is a foe that has outlasted the Nazis, North Koreans, Viet Cong, the Iraqi Army and the Taliban — government bureaucracy. In essence, bureaucrats overseeing the state departments of Health and Public Welfare and the U.S. Veterans Affairs programs said they were limited in how much they could cover long-term, in-patient, non-hospital care. That leaves the 32-bed sanctuary with lots of potential clients, but no way to pay for their treatment...

In many cases, veterans who needed the help were unable to tap into two public funding streams administered by the PA. Welfare Department: Act 152 and the Behavioral Health Service Initiative. They were established in part to cover non-hospital detoxification and rehabilitation care, according to the U.S. Office of Mental Health and Substance Abuse Services. Care also could be covered under state Department of Health funds administered through counties.

"For some reason, these systems, really, when it came to paying the money for veteran-specific care, it was like, ooooh, not eligible, not eligible, go to the VA," Csandl said."

http://www.mcall.com/news/local/mc-pictures-news-veterans-sanctuary-20120524,0,7145829.photogallery

[blue neen]

1. Why can't they reclassify the program so that private insurance could cover treatment?

Who would be responsible for getting that changed?

[freshwest]

2. What private insurer would make a profit off of it, when PA has decided to cut it?

[blue neen]

3. Well, that's what is confusing.

From the first article:

"The problem started with the Sanctuary's licensing. Because it is not a hospital, it could not accept patients with private insurance, said Diana Heckman, director of development at the sanctuary."

So, it seems like the lack of private insurance is one of the causes of the lack in funding, therefore leading to the center's closure. Honestly, I don't know if that's right, though.