A partial hospitalization program fills most of a weekday with clinical work and sends the person home, or to supported housing, to sleep. Federal guidance from 2006 places intensive outpatient and partial hospitalization services together at Level II of the American Society of Addiction Medicine’s continuum, between outpatient services at Level I and residential or inpatient care at Level III [1].
Two of our Texas campuses publish one. This page covers what the level actually involves, where people stay while attending, how the choice between a day program and a bed gets made, and what commercial plans and Texas Medicaid do with it.
If you are comparing tiers rather than states, our guide to Levels of Care is the better place to start.
What a Partial Hospitalization Program Involves in Texas
Think of it as the working day, spent in treatment.
The clinical content is close to what a residential program runs: group work, individual sessions, medical review, medication management where that is part of the plan. What changes is the night. The person sleeps somewhere other than a ward, which is the whole reason the level exists.
Federal guidance puts intensive outpatient and partial hospitalization services at the same level of the continuum, subdivided into two tiers, and places residential and inpatient services a level above [1]. That placement is worth holding onto. A partial hospitalization program is not a lighter version of outpatient care. It is the tier immediately below a bed, and it is usually chosen because a bed is either unnecessary or impossible.
Texas adds a practical wrinkle that smaller states do not have. The level demands attendance most weekdays, and in a state this size the distance between home and campus decides whether that is realistic. That is why the housing section below is not filler.
Where Our Texas Campuses Publish a PHP
We run three campuses in Texas, and their published levels are not identical.
Promises Brazos Valley is in College Station. Its page publishes medical detox, residential and inpatient treatment, inpatient rehab for mental health, a partial hospitalization program, intensive outpatient programming that its own card describes as in person and virtual, and aftercare planning [2]. Its partial hospitalization card places those sessions away from the main facility, so ask admissions where that day is held [2].
The Right Step Houston is in Houston. Its page publishes medical detox, residential and inpatient treatment, a partial hospitalization program, intensive outpatient programming and aftercare planning [3]. Its own pages describe that intensive outpatient treatment as provided virtually and available to Texas residents [3].
Promises Dallas-Fort Worth is in Lewisville. Its page publishes medical detox, residential and inpatient treatment, inpatient rehab for mental health, intensive outpatient programming and aftercare planning [4]. Its own pages describe that intensive outpatient treatment as virtual and for Texas residents [4].
Read those three lists as what each campus publishes rather than as a ranking. Which one suits a particular person depends on the assessment and on where they live, and admissions will say which campus can take the recommended level. Ask that question directly on the first call.
One thing to settle before a start date. Where an assessment finds that withdrawal needs medical management first, that stage comes before a day program rather than during it. Alcohol and sedative withdrawal in particular can be dangerous: federal guidance names seizures and delirium tremens among the outcomes in severe alcohol dependence that can lead to fatal consequences [5]. Our explainer on Medical Detox covers what that stage involves.
If someone is having a seizure, is unresponsive or has trouble breathing, call 911. For a mental health crisis, call or text 988.
A Typical PHP Day, and the Shape of a Week
The day starts early and it is full. That is the point of it.
Expect a morning check-in, then group work through the middle of the day, individual sessions scheduled into it, and a medical or medication review at whatever interval the plan sets. Meals usually happen on site. The afternoon ends with the person going home rather than to a room upstairs.
The week is built the same way, most weekdays rather than a few evenings. That density is what separates this level from intensive outpatient care, where the schedule is deliberately built around a job. A partial hospitalization program is generally not compatible with full-time work, and it is more honest to say that at the start than to discover it in week two.
Medication frequently runs through the whole course. For opioid use disorder, federal research guidance describes treatment with methadone, buprenorphine or naltrexone as the standard of care, and notes that medications are available for alcohol use disorder as well [6]. Our page on medication-assisted treatment covers how that fits a plan.
Ask one question before enrolling anywhere: what happens on the days the program does not run? A level this intensive has gaps by design, and a program that has not thought about them is selling a timetable.
Where People Stay While Attending a Day Program
This is the question that decides whether a partial hospitalization program is workable at all, and it is the one people ask last.
There are three usual answers. Home, where home is stable and is not where the use happened. Supported or recovery housing, arranged alongside the program. Or a temporary arrangement with family, which works better when everyone has agreed what it involves in advance rather than assuming.
The test is not comfort. It is whether the place a person returns to at six in the evening supports the work done between nine and four. If it does not, the honest answer is often the tier above rather than a day program plus optimism.
Ask admissions three things. Does the campus arrange or coordinate housing, or only refer? What does it cost, and is it billed separately from the program? And what happens to the arrangement if the clinical plan changes mid-course?
Our walkthrough of How to Get Into Rehab covers what else is worth settling before the first day.
Day-program treatment on a Texas campus
Promises Brazos Valley is in College Station, Texas. It publishes medical detox, residential and inpatient treatment, inpatient rehab for mental health, a partial hospitalization program, intensive outpatient programming in person and virtually, and aftercare planning, so a step up or down stays inside one organization.
Check your coverage and admissions
Verify your insurance
Promises Brazos Valley is part of our family of treatment centers. See the Promises Brazos Valley campus.
PHP or Residential: How the Choice Gets Made in Texas
An assessment makes this call, and it turns on a small number of things.
Federal guidance separates the two tiers explicitly, with intensive outpatient and partial hospitalization at Level II and residential or inpatient care at Level III [1]. The move between them is a clinical judgment rather than a preference, and the factors are familiar: what is being used and how much, what withdrawal is likely to look like, what other medical and psychiatric conditions are in play, and whether the place someone sleeps supports recovery or undermines it.
Two Texas-specific pressures are worth naming. The first is distance. A day program several hours away is not a day program; it is a residential stay with a commute attached, and the assessment should say so. The second is work. Where a job genuinely cannot be paused, intensive outpatient care is the tier built for that constraint, and our page on Outpatient Rehab explains how it differs.
What should not drive the decision is cost alone. It is a fair thing to raise on the call, and a benefits check will tell you what each tier costs, but a level of care chosen against the assessment tends to be the more expensive answer in the end. Our guide to Inpatient Rehab covers the tier above if that is where the assessment points.
Coverage in Texas: Commercial Plans and Texas Medicaid (STAR)
Three routes, and they behave differently enough to be worth taking one at a time.
Commercial plans. The Promises Brazos Valley page carries an accepted-insurance note in its own words. It says the campus is in-network with most major insurance carriers including Aetna, Blue Cross Blue Shield, Cigna, Humana and United [2]. The Right Step Houston page carries its own note naming Aetna, Blue Cross Blue Shield, Cigna, Humana and United [3]. Both are general statements about carriers rather than answers about a policy. A benefits check settles four things: in-network status for that campus under your plan, the deductible and how much is met, coinsurance after it, and whether this level of care needs prior authorization.
The federal floor. Under the Mental Health Parity and Addiction Equity Act, a plan that covers mental health and substance use care may not apply harsher limits to it than it applies to medical and surgical care, and that reaches prior authorization and step therapy as well as visit and day caps [7]. The scope is worth knowing. It applies to non-federal governmental plans with more than 50 employees, to private employer group plans with more than 50 employees, and to individual-market coverage [7]. Plans from small employers are not covered directly; they get comparable protection through the Affordable Care Act’s essential health benefits requirement [7]. Marketplace plans must cover substance use disorder services as an essential health benefit, with no yearly or lifetime dollar caps [8].
Texas Medicaid and CHIP are run by the Texas Health and Human Services Commission, which describes them as providing health coverage for low-income children, families, seniors and people with disabilities [9]. Most Texas Medicaid services are delivered through health plans, and the state lists its Medicaid programs as STAR, STAR Kids, STAR Health and STAR+PLUS [11]. Which plan a member holds decides who authorizes what, so establish the plan first and then confirm the benefit with it and with admissions. Our guides to Does Insurance Cover Rehab? and How Much Does Rehab Cost? list the rest of the questions.
Travel Inside a State This Size
Texas is the variable that changes the answer, and a page written for a smaller state would get this wrong.
College Station, Houston and Lewisville sit at three corners of a very large triangle, and there is no version of a day program that works across it. So the practical sequence is: get the assessment, find out which campus can take the recommended level, and then ask whether the distance makes daily attendance real.
Where it does not, there are two honest options rather than one. A residential admission, which removes the commute entirely. Or a step down to intensive outpatient care once the intensive phase is finished — and for a reader in Lubbock or El Paso that tier may not need the drive at all, because The Right Step Houston and Promises Dallas-Fort Worth both describe their intensive outpatient treatment as virtual and available to Texas residents [3] [4]. Neither is a failure of planning; choosing between them deliberately is the planning.
Two logistics worth settling early. Who drives on a day when the usual person cannot, and what the program’s policy is on lateness and missed days. Both sound trivial. Both are the reasons courses end early.
Federal guidance is explicit that detoxification “is not substance abuse treatment and rehabilitation” and names fostering a person’s entry into treatment as its third component [10]. The same principle applies to every tier: the handover is the part to plan. Our overview of the rehab process sets out the whole arc, and the full list of our treatment centers shows what the family runs elsewhere.
Frequently Asked Questions
Which of your Texas campuses publish a partial hospitalization program? Promises Brazos Valley in College Station and The Right Step Houston in Houston both publish one on their own pages. Promises Dallas-Fort Worth in Lewisville publishes medical detox, residential and inpatient treatment, inpatient rehab for mental health, intensive outpatient programming and aftercare planning. Houston and Lewisville both describe their intensive outpatient treatment as virtual and available to Texas residents, and College Station’s card reads in person and virtual. Ask admissions which campus can take the level an assessment recommends.
How many days a week does a partial hospitalization program run? Most weekdays, rather than a few evenings. Federal guidance places partial hospitalization with intensive outpatient services at Level II of the continuum, a tier below residential and inpatient care. The exact schedule is set by the program and by the clinical plan. Because the days are full, this level is generally not compatible with full-time work.
Where do people stay while attending a day program in Texas? Usually at home, in recovery or supported housing arranged alongside the program, or with family. The test is whether the place someone returns to in the evening supports the day’s work. Ask admissions whether the campus arranges housing or refers out, what it costs, whether it is billed separately, and what happens if the clinical plan changes.
Does Texas Medicaid pay for a partial hospitalization program? Texas Medicaid and CHIP are run by the Texas Health and Human Services Commission. Most Texas Medicaid services are delivered through health plans, and the state lists its Medicaid programs as STAR, STAR Kids, STAR Health and STAR+PLUS. What is covered for a particular member is set by that member’s plan, so establish the plan first, then confirm the benefit and any prior authorization requirement with it and with admissions before a start date.
When would a clinician recommend residential care instead of a PHP? When the assessment says a bed is needed. Federal guidance puts residential and inpatient services a level above partial hospitalization on the continuum. The usual reasons are the withdrawal picture, other medical or psychiatric conditions, and whether home supports recovery. Distance is a Texas-specific factor too: a day program hours away is not realistically a day program.
Sources
- Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration. (2006). Substance Abuse: Clinical Issues in Intensive Outpatient Treatment, TIP 47 — Chapter 3: Intensive Outpatient Treatment and the Continuum of Care. NCBI Bookshelf. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK64088/
- Promises Brazos Valley. Promises Brazos Valley, College Station, Texas — Levels of Care and Accepted Insurance. https://www.therecoveryvillage.com/locations/promises-brazos-valley/
- The Right Step Houston. The Right Step Houston, Houston, Texas — Levels of Care and Accepted Insurance. https://www.therecoveryvillage.com/locations/the-right-step-houston/
- Promises Dallas-Fort Worth. Promises Dallas-Fort Worth, Lewisville, Texas — Levels of Care. https://www.therecoveryvillage.com/locations/promises-dallas-fort-worth/
- Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration. (2006). Detoxification and Substance Abuse Treatment, TIP 45 — Chapter 4: Physical Detoxification Services for Withdrawal From Specific Substances. NCBI Bookshelf. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK64116/
- National Institute on Drug Abuse. Treatment. https://nida.nih.gov/research-topics/treatment
- Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services. The Mental Health Parity and Addiction Equity Act (MHPAEA). https://www.cms.gov/marketplace/private-health-insurance/mental-health-parity-addiction-equity
- HealthCare.gov. Mental Health and Substance Abuse Health Coverage Options. https://www.healthcare.gov/coverage/mental-health-substance-abuse-coverage/
- Texas Health and Human Services. Medicaid and CHIP. https://www.hhs.texas.gov/services/health/medicaid-chip
- Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration. (2006). Detoxification and Substance Abuse Treatment, TIP 45 — Chapter 1: Overview, Essential Concepts, and Definitions in Detoxification. NCBI Bookshelf. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK64119/
- Texas Health and Human Services Commission. Medicaid and CHIP Members. State of Texas. https://www.hhs.texas.gov/services/health/medicaid-chip/medicaid-chip-members
This page is for general information and is not medical advice. Only a licensed clinician who knows your history can tell you what is right for you. If you or someone you know is in immediate danger, call 911. For free, confidential support 24/7, call or text 988.
Author
Chief Medical Officer,
The Recovery Village
