Two answers, and the second one matters more. The first is a price range, and this page gives real figures below rather than making you hunt for them. The second is that in Georgia the number you personally pay is decided less by what a program charges than by which coverage door you can get through, and on what terms that door opens.
That is why a Georgia cost page has to be about coverage as well as price. Below: the ranges and where they come from, what moves them, how Georgia Pathways to Coverage works and the condition attached to it, what changes with a Marketplace or employer plan, what our Georgia campuses publish, and the costs that sit outside a quote. Our page on How Much Does Rehab Cost? sets out ranges by level of care and names program length first among the things that change the price, Does Insurance Cover Rehab? covers the coverage side, and you can verify your insurance with admissions at any point.
The Ranges, and the Number We Will Not Print
These come off our own cost page. Taken together they cover the whole span: $2,000 to $25,000 and up for drug and alcohol rehab as a whole. Broken out, basic residential treatment sits at $2,000 to $20,000, a 30-day intensive outpatient program at $3,000 to $10,000, partial hospitalization at $350 to $450 a day, and medical detox at $250 to $800 a day.
They belong to us. No federal body published them, no Georgia survey produced them, and no program has agreed to them. Use them to test a quote, not as one.
A Georgia average is not something this page will invent. Nobody we can open publishes one, and an average would be pooling unnamed programs at incomparable levels of care. It would look like a fact and behave like a guess.
The National Center for Health Statistics puts Georgia’s 2024 age-adjusted drug overdose death rate at 18.1 per 100,000, from 2,029 drug overdose deaths that year [6].
If someone is having a seizure, is unresponsive or has trouble breathing, call 911. For a mental health crisis, call or text 988.
What Moves the Number
Set coverage aside for a moment. Two other variables do most of the work.
Which tier you are buying. Federal treatment guidance lays out a ladder of settings, from a doctor’s office at one end to acute care inpatient at the other, with day programs and intensive outpatient care in between, and it separately describes five adult detoxification levels [2]. Comparing a quote from one rung against a quote from another tells you nothing. Settle the rung, then shop.
Whether withdrawal management is inside the figure. Federal guidance draws that line itself: detoxification “is not substance abuse treatment and rehabilitation” [3]. Two services, frequently two invoices. Put the question to a program in exactly those terms.
Our explainers on Medical Detox and Levels of Care, which sets out five treatment levels, describe each tier clinically.
Georgia Pathways to Coverage, and the Hours Condition
Georgia runs a Medicaid pathway of its own, and it is worth understanding properly before you plan around it, because it carries a condition the state attaches to no other Georgia Medicaid program [1].
The program’s own page says it offers Medicaid coverage to eligible Georgians aged 19 to 64 with a household income of up to 100% of the federal poverty level [1]. It publishes what that means in money: in 2026, $15,960 a year, or $1,330 a month on average, for one person, and $27,320 a year, or $2,277 a month on average, for a family of three [1]. It also says eligible Georgians are those not otherwise eligible for traditional Medicaid who meet the qualifying activities threshold [1].
On benefits, the page lists what it covers, and mental health services are on that list alongside doctor visits, hospital stays, emergency services, prescriptions, and laboratory and x-ray services [1].
Now the condition. The program’s page says that to maintain coverage you are required to complete one or more qualifying activities for at least 80 hours each month, and that if you do not complete all 80 hours in a month you may request a Good Cause Exception for the hours not completed [1]. It adds that the qualifying activity requirement applies only to Pathways and not to people enrolled in other Georgia Medicaid programs [1].
Read that next to a residential admission and you can see why it matters here. Anyone considering time in treatment should raise the hours question with the program directly, before admission rather than after, and ask how a Good Cause Exception is requested. This page states the rule; it does not interpret it for your situation.
One more line from the same page, because it is a cost line people forget: it says Pathways does not cover non-emergency medical transportation, except for members aged 19 to 20 [1]. Getting to treatment is part of the price.
If You Have a Marketplace or Employer Plan
Once a plan is involved, the advertised price stops being the number that decides anything, and two federal rules step in front of it.
Marketplace plans have to include mental health and substance use disorder services in their essential health benefits [4]. They also cannot turn you away or charge you more for a pre-existing condition, and they cannot cap those services with a yearly or lifetime dollar limit [4].
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 [5]. 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 [5]. Plans from small employers are not covered directly; they get comparable protection through the Affordable Care Act’s essential health benefits requirement.
This page names no insurer as selling or not selling in Georgia. That is a claim about a company’s business, it changes annually, and we found no state or federal list we could open and read. Your card and your plan documents are where that answer is.
Then ask for the out-of-pocket maximum. Deductibles and coinsurance shape the bill; that one figure caps the worst case.
Our Georgia Campuses, and What Roswell Publishes
We run more than one site in Georgia, and they do not all run the same levels, so the first admissions question is which one rather than whether.
The Recovery Village Atlanta is at Roswell, north of the city. Its own page publishes medical detox, inpatient treatment, partial hospitalization programming, dual diagnosis treatment and aftercare planning [7]. That card list is the campus’s own and is what to price against.
Our other Georgia sites sit south and east of Atlanta. Rather than list their levels from a roster, tell admissions what an assessment recommended and let them say which site runs it and what is open. Our Georgia treatment options page shows what runs in the state, and Inpatient Rehab and Outpatient Rehab explain the tiers most of these decisions turn on.
Paying Directly, and the Costs That Sit Outside the Quote
Paying yourself is a legitimate route, and it is a conversation rather than a checkout. Arrive with questions.
Get a figure per tier, and the day count baked into each figure. Find out what a deposit is actually holding, and where it goes if an assessment moves you up or down a rung. Get the separate-billing list named out loud: medication, laboratory work, a psychiatric consultation and transport are the four that usually sit outside, and the Pathways page above is a reminder that even a public program can leave transport off [1]. If payment over time is on offer, have it written down rather than promised.
Last question, and the one people skip: what happens if the stay runs longer than the quote assumed. That is where a planned cost becomes an unplanned one.
Our walkthrough of How to Get Into Rehab covers the rest of the first call, and How to Go to Rehab and Keep Your Job covers time away from work. SAMHSA also runs FindTreatment.gov as a locator.
Frequently Asked Questions
How much does rehab cost in Georgia? Work from our own published ranges: $2,000 to $25,000 and up across drug and alcohol rehab as a whole, $2,000 to $20,000 for basic residential treatment, and $3,000 to $10,000 for a 30-day intensive outpatient program. They are ours, not federal. There is no Georgia average here, because pooling unnamed programs at incomparable tiers produces a number nobody can use.
Does Georgia Pathways to Coverage pay for mental health services? The program’s own page lists mental health services among its covered benefits, alongside doctor visits, hospital stays, emergency services, prescriptions, and laboratory and x-ray services. What that means for a specific admission at a specific level of care is decided case by case, so put the question to the program and ask admissions to verify coverage independently.
What are the qualifying activity hours for Georgia Pathways to Coverage? The program’s page says that to maintain coverage you must complete one or more qualifying activities for at least 80 hours each month. If you do not complete all 80 hours in a month, it says you may request a Good Cause Exception for the hours not completed. It also says this requirement applies only to Pathways, not to other Georgia Medicaid programs.
How much does medical detox cost? On our own cost page, medical detox runs $250 to $800 a day and partial hospitalization $350 to $450 a day. Keep withdrawal management in its own column: federal guidance states outright that detoxification “is not substance abuse treatment and rehabilitation”. So ask each program whether the days before treatment starts are inside its quoted figure or billed on their own.
What sits outside a treatment quote? Four items, usually: medication, laboratory work, a psychiatric consultation and transport. Get them listed in writing instead of taking a single figure, and ask what day count the figure assumes. Transport deserves its own question. Georgia’s Pathways page says the program does not cover non-emergency medical transportation, except for members aged 19 to 20.
Sources
- Georgia Pathways to Coverage. About Georgia Pathways to Coverage. https://pathways.georgia.gov/about-pathways
- Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration. (2006). Detoxification and Substance Abuse Treatment, TIP 45 — Chapter 2: Settings, Levels of Care, and Patient Placement. NCBI Bookshelf. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK64109/
- 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/
- HealthCare.gov. Mental Health and Substance Abuse Health Coverage Options. https://www.healthcare.gov/coverage/mental-health-substance-abuse-coverage/
- 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
- National Center for Health Statistics, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Drug Overdose Mortality — Stats of the States. https://www.cdc.gov/nchs/state-stats/deaths/drug-overdose.html
- The Recovery Village Atlanta. The Recovery Village Atlanta, Roswell, Georgia — Levels of Care. https://www.therecoveryvillage.com/locations/atlanta/
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
