Admissions at The Recovery Village Umatilla

Admission to The Recovery Village Umatilla runs through a call, a benefits check and a clinical assessment. The campus states that it has beds available for same-day admission, and its page lists Same-Day Admission Available and Walk-Ins Accepted [10].

Two things on that page are worth reading before you call. The campus says it is accredited by The Joint Commission and licensed by the Florida Department of Children and Families [10]. And it says it welcomes both in-state and out-of-state clients, and tailors its services to accommodate military veterans, members of the LGBTQ+ community and the elderly [10].

Its level-of-care cards are medical detox, inpatient treatment, inpatient rehab for mental health, partial hospitalization programming, outpatient programming and aftercare planning [10]. The outpatient card describes clients living at home or in a sober living home and commuting to rehab during the week [10].

What follows is the order an admission happens in.

What Happens on the First Call

Nothing is settled in that conversation. It is a screening.

Substance and amount come up first, then the length of time, prior treatment, current prescriptions, and the state of your health more broadly. After that, how care gets paid for, and where you happen to be standing.

Do not shave the amount. Clinicians turn those figures into a withdrawal plan, which makes an understated number the single reply in that call with a bodily consequence.

Put one question back to them: which of the six levels do you expect to start me in? The campus’s phone rules and its room arrangements both vary by level of care [7], so the answer shapes more than the timetable.

Whoever rings need not be the patient. Limits apply to what staff can say in return, set out near the end here. Our guides to how to get into rehab and what the rehab process is like describe the sequence across every campus.

The Clinical Assessment and How the Level of Care Is Decided

Where a person starts is decided clinically, and the criteria behind it are public.

Three essential components make up detox in SAMHSA’s consensus-panel definition, and they may take place concurrently or as a series of steps: evaluation, stabilization, and fostering the patient’s entry into treatment [1].

Getting somebody to the right setting is a discipline of its own. The treatment settings, and the five adult detox levels the field uses, sit in TIP 45’s placement chapter [2]. That chapter also holds that concern for safety is of primary importance, and that the final decision regarding placement always rests with the treating physician [2].

Timing matters because of medical danger, and the danger is not uniform across drugs. Seizures and delirium tremens appear in TIP 45’s list of outcomes in severe alcohol dependence that can lead to fatal consequences [3]. Its position on alcohol, sedative-hypnotic and opioid withdrawal syndromes is that hospitalization or some form of 24-hour medical care is generally the preferred setting [3]. This campus says the same thing without the clinical register: depending on the substance, quitting cold turkey can be dangerous and life-threatening, which is why it provides a regulated medical detox plan and 24-hour care for those in residential treatment [7]. Opioids then invert it. Withdrawal reduces tolerance, MedlinePlus says, so those who have just gone through withdrawal can overdose on a much smaller dose [4].

If someone is having a seizure, is unresponsive or has trouble breathing, call 911. For a mental-health crisis call or text 988.

Acceptance before arrival is provisional. The campus describes a pre-admission acceptance as a preliminary determination that you are appropriate for admission, and says your presentation on arrival or during the stay may show a different facility is more appropriate [7]. Our explainer on levels of care covers the five treatment levels, and the rehab intake process covers the paperwork.

Insurance, Verification and What It Costs in FL

Verification runs alongside the assessment. Admissions usually handles it.

The campus says it is in network with most major insurance carriers including Aetna, Blue Cross Blue Shield, Cigna, Humana and United, and that it offers private pay options where somebody has no insurance or limited coverage [10]. That is a general statement rather than a ruling on your policy.

On price it is candid about the shape rather than the number. It says the cost varies with your coverage and the kind of treatment you need, that intensive levels such as detox and inpatient involve the highest costs, and that outpatient programs tend to cost less because they involve fewer programming hours and medical resources [10]. Our own cost page publishes the ranges behind that pattern.

Florida Medicaid has its own machinery, and the state names it. The Agency for Health Care Administration is responsible for administering the Statewide Medicaid Managed Care program, most Florida Medicaid recipients are enrolled in it, and the Managed Medical Assistance program is one of its three components [8]. Which plan a member holds decides who authorizes what, so ask admissions to check it against your card rather than assuming.

Two federal floors sit under a commercial policy. A Marketplace plan must include substance use disorder treatment as an essential health benefit. It cannot refuse enrollment over a pre-existing condition. It cannot cap that benefit in dollars annually or for a lifetime [5].

The second is parity. 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 [6]. The scope is worth knowing: it applies to non-federal governmental plans with more than 50 employees, to group health plans of private employers with more than 50 employees, and to the individual market [6]. Plans from small employers are not covered directly; they get comparable protection through the Affordable Care Act’s essential health benefits requirement.

Our guide to insurance coverage for rehab explains how a benefits check runs.

What to Bring and What to Leave at Home

Two bags is the allowance here, carrying approved clothing, hygiene items, medications and important documents [7]. Umatilla is more generous on this than several of our campuses, which permit one.

Documents earn their space before anything else. State or government photo identification, meaning a driver’s license or a passport [7]. Travel documents where you need them [7]. Medical records, or the names and numbers of the people treating you [7]. Your insurance card [7]. Then a written list of relatives and how to reach them [7]. Do that one by hand. Your phone is about to disappear into storage.

Medication gets reviewed by the care team at intake, and what carries on is their call rather than yours. Where medication for opioid use disorder is part of the picture, our page on medication-assisted treatment explains how it sits in a plan.

Smokers should over-pack, as there is no resupply. Bring enough unopened cigarettes or tobacco products to cover the anticipated length of your stay [7]. Disposables only among vapes, because nothing on site can charge one, and every product must arrive new and sealed [7]. What the campus does give back is rhythm: residents take periodic smoke breaks during designated times, six times a day [7].

Getting Here: Travel, Arrival and Who Can Come With You

The campus says it does not pay for travel to or from the facility, but that its representatives can help you coordinate travel arrangements [10]. Book it yourself and let them time it.

Arrival includes a consent to search. You will be asked to consent to a search of your person and belongings, so the team can keep you and your peers safe and prevent anything that could hurt your or your peers’ treatment progress [7]. Loved ones are not left wondering: the campus says a safety call is made to them on arrival [7].

Visiting here is supervised and clinically governed rather than timetabled. The campus says all visits from loved ones are supervised, that family engagement sessions are offered at least once a week during most levels of care with virtual sessions on Saturdays, and that visitation decisions and arrangements are made privately between each client and their therapist during treatment [10]. So the answer to “can I come on Sunday?” is one your relative’s therapist gives, not the front desk. The campus’s what to expect page on this site covers daily life rather than the admission.

The First 24 Hours on the Umatilla Campus

Phones go into storage on arrival, and what happens next depends entirely on your level of care [7].

After a 72-hour blackout period, patients can use facility phones three times a week for half an hour, during non-clinical hours, Saturday through Thursday [7]. In inpatient substance use rehab and at the partial hospitalization level, patients can sign their own cell phone in and out for two hours a day, three days a week, after required programming, on signing an agreement and putting a safety strip over the camera [7]. Primary mental health clients do not have cell phone access while in the mental health unit, which the campus explains is to support rest and recovery [7].

Rooms are shared, and the campus gives a range rather than a promise. Between two and three patients typically occupy each room, some rooms may house as many as four, and each room has one bathroom that its residents share [7]. How many people are in yours may change with your treatment stage and care needs [7].

Food is three meals a day, prepared, planned and served by in-house chefs, usually with a few options at each meal and vegetarian and vegan choices available [7]. Three snacks a day come with that [7]. Nothing edible comes in from outside [7]. Flag allergies before you travel [7].

The grounds do a lot of work here. The published list includes an outdoor swimming pool, an exercise gym, a basketball court, a sand volleyball court, frisbee golf, horseshoes, tether-ball, foosball, cornhole, a pool table and board games, and an outdoor grilling area [7]. Laundry and housekeeping, and an on-site washer and dryer, are available for select levels of care [7]. Mental health rehab patients get exclusive gardening beds [7].

Therapy is named rather than gestured at: cognitive behavioral therapy, dialectic behavioral therapy, neurocognitive therapy, cognitive processing therapy, SMART Recovery, 12-Step and Back to Basics, an Anchor Trauma Group, individual counseling and group therapy, with optional spiritual and Christian-based groups [7].

For anyone whose withdrawal needs supervision, medical detox is the opening stage and the one with real medical risk in it. Our inpatient rehab page describes residential care in general terms.

Telling Work and Family

Two problems, and only one has a deadline.

Leave does. The Family and Medical Leave Act lets eligible employees of a covered employer take job-protected, unpaid leave for up to a total of 12 workweeks in any 12 months [9]. Send that request to whoever administers leave where you work, and start it before you travel if you can.

Disclosure is the other. Where a facility is publicly identified as somewhere only substance use disorder treatment happens, federal confidentiality rules allow an identified patient’s presence to be acknowledged only with that patient’s written consent, or under an authorizing court order [11]. A program answering an inquiry may not affirmatively reveal that an identified person has been or is being treated for a substance use disorder [11]. The caller may be told the regulations restrict disclosure generally, and may not be told they restrict the records of an identified patient [11]. Someone ringing to check whether you are there gets nothing.

Which is why the safety call on arrival matters, and why the handwritten contact list does [7]. Between them they are how the first week sounds from the outside.

If This Campus Is Not the Right Fit

A recommendation to go elsewhere is the assessment doing its work.

Three reasons account for most of them. The clinical picture may belong in another setting, which is exactly what the campus’s pre-admission wording allows for [7]. An insurer may refuse to authorize this site. Or the journey may be impossible, though this campus does take out-of-state clients and says so on its page [10].

Both places the campus states a length of stay give the same answer. Treatment often starts with medical detox, which it says typically takes between five and 10 days [7]. The whole process often lasts between 35 and 45 days, and most people stay roughly that long, depending on individual needs and recovery progress [7].

What comes after is published too. The campus says that after treatment you will have the option to transfer to sober living housing or return home, and that staff provide a list of local resources and clinics for continuing care before you leave [7]. Its aftercare planning card describes outlining next steps, follow-up appointments and nearby support groups [10].

If a lighter level is recommended, our page on outpatient rehab explains what that involves. Our treatment centers page shows a map of the states we serve, and each campus site says what it runs.

The closing point does not change with the answer. TIP 45’s consensus panel took special care to note that detoxification is not substance abuse treatment and rehabilitation [1], and most people need long-term treatment after detox [4].

Frequently Asked Questions

Sources

1. Center for Substance Abuse Treatment. (2006). Detoxification and Substance Abuse Treatment, Chapter 1: Overview, Essential Concepts, and Definitions in Detoxification. Treatment Improvement Protocol (TIP) Series No. 45. Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK64119/
2. Center for Substance Abuse Treatment. (2006). Detoxification and Substance Abuse Treatment, Chapter 2: Settings, Levels of Care, and Patient Placement. Treatment Improvement Protocol (TIP) Series No. 45. Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK64109/
3. Center for Substance Abuse Treatment. (2006). Detoxification and Substance Abuse Treatment, Chapter 4: Physical Detoxification Services for Withdrawal From Specific Substances. Treatment Improvement Protocol (TIP) Series No. 45. Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK64116/
4. MedlinePlus Medical Encyclopedia. Opiate and Opioid Withdrawal. National Library of Medicine. https://medlineplus.gov/ency/article/000949.htm
5. HealthCare.gov. Mental Health and Substance Abuse Health Coverage Options. Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services. https://www.healthcare.gov/coverage/mental-health-substance-abuse-coverage/
6. 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
7. The Recovery Village Umatilla. What To Expect at The Recovery Village Umatilla. The Recovery Village. https://www.therecoveryvillage.com/locations/umatilla/what-to-expect/
8. Florida Agency for Health Care Administration. Statewide Medicaid Managed Care. State of Florida. https://ahca.myflorida.com/medicaid/statewide-medicaid-managed-care.html
9. Legal Information Institute, Cornell Law School. 29 CFR § 825.100 — The Family and Medical Leave Act. https://www.law.cornell.edu/cfr/text/29/825.100
10. The Recovery Village Umatilla. The Recovery Village Umatilla. The Recovery Village. https://www.therecoveryvillage.com/locations/umatilla/
11. Legal Information Institute, Cornell Law School. 42 CFR § 2.13 — Confidentiality restrictions and safeguards. https://www.law.cornell.edu/cfr/text/42/2.13

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

Kevin Wandler, MD

Chief Medical Officer, The Recovery Village