Treatment is priced by tier, and this page gives our figures for each tier below. But there is a Texas-shaped wrinkle underneath the arithmetic, and it is worth saying first: in a state this large, what you can physically get to is part of what you end up paying. A program an hour away and a program four hours away are not the same purchase even at the same nightly rate.
That is also why the delivery format matters here more than it does in a small state. Both of our Texas campuses whose own pages we read describe their intensive outpatient programming as virtual — clients attend scheduled appointments online rather than driving to them. Whatever else that is, it is a different cost structure for the person attending.
Below: the ranges, what moves them, what a virtual program changes about a bill, what Texas Health and Human Services publishes about Medicaid and CHIP, what a commercial plan changes, what our campuses publish, and the lines 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.
From our own cost page, and repeated here rather than re-derived: $2,000 to $25,000 and up for drug and alcohol rehab taken as a whole, $2,000 to $20,000 for basic residential treatment, $3,000 to $10,000 for a 30-day intensive outpatient program, $350 to $450 a day for partial hospitalization, and $250 to $800 a day for medical detox.
Those numbers are ours. No federal agency issued them, no Texas survey produced them, and no program has signed up to them. They are a yardstick for testing a quote.
There is no Texas average on this page. We could not find a state or federal source that publishes one, and an average rolled up from unnamed programs across incomparable tiers would tell a reader nothing they could plan with.
The National Center for Health Statistics puts Texas’s 2024 age-adjusted drug overdose death rate at 15.8 per 100,000, from 4,980 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.
The Tier Decides the Price, So Settle the Tier First
Federal treatment guidance describes a ladder of settings — a physician’s office at the low end, then freestanding treatment facilities, then intensive outpatient and partial hospitalization programs, and acute care inpatient at the top — and separately sets out five adult detoxification levels [2]. Two quotes from different rungs are not comparable, however similar the headline number looks.
One line inside that ladder catches nearly everyone. Federal guidance states that detoxification “is not substance abuse treatment and rehabilitation” [3]. Withdrawal management is a service of its own, and it is often billed on its own. Ask whether a quoted figure covers the days before treatment begins, or starts after them.
Our explainers on Medical Detox and Levels of Care, which sets out five treatment levels, describe each rung clinically rather than commercially.
Virtual Intensive Outpatient, and What It Changes
This is the part a Texas reader will not find on a generic cost page.
The Right Step Houston cards its intensive outpatient programming as virtual, and its own description says clients live off-site and attend scheduled appointments online [7]. Promises Dallas-Fort Worth cards its intensive outpatient programming as virtual too, and says clients live off-site and attend scheduled appointments virtually [8].
For a cost conversation, that is a real variable rather than a detail. An in-person outpatient program in a large state can carry weeks of driving, fuel and time away from paid work; an online one does not, though it asks for a private space and a reliable connection instead. Neither is presented here as better treatment than the other. They are simply not the same thing to budget for, and a quote that does not say which one you are buying is incomplete.
So ask, in those words: is this program delivered in person or online, and for how many sessions a week. Then price the travel separately if the answer is in person.
Checking coverage and admissions in Texas
The Right Step Houston is our campus in Houston, Texas. Its own page publishes medical detox, residential rehab for substance abuse, partial hospitalization programming, intensive outpatient programming that it marks as virtual, and aftercare planning.
Check your coverage and admissions
Verify your insurance
The Right Step Houston is part of our family of treatment centers. See the Right Step Houston campus.
If You Have Texas Medicaid or CHIP
Texas Health and Human Services states the arrangement plainly on its members page. Most Medicaid services and all Children’s Health Insurance Program services are delivered through health plans, and if you have Medicaid or CHIP your health plan makes sure you get the health care services you need [1].
That sentence tells you where to aim a question. The department says that if you have questions about your health care or your doctor, you contact your health plan [1]. So the body that answers a cost or approval question is the plan, not the department.
The same page lists the state’s Medicaid and CHIP programs: STAR, STAR Kids, STAR Health, STAR+PLUS and CHIP [1]. And it adds that if you are not enrolled in one of those, you may have Traditional Medicaid [1]. Knowing which of those names is on your card is the first thing a productive call needs.
This page goes no further than the department’s own words. It does not describe how behavioral health is arranged inside those programs, because no page we read says it, and a guess at that would be the kind of sentence that gets repeated for years. Ask your plan, and ask admissions to check independently. Our walkthrough of How to Get Into Rehab covers what a first call needs from you.
If You Have a Marketplace or Employer Plan
With a commercial plan, two federal rules set the shape of the bill before any negotiation starts.
Marketplace plans have to include mental health and substance use disorder services among their essential health benefits, cannot refuse or surcharge coverage for a pre-existing condition, and cannot put yearly or lifetime dollar limits on those services [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.
No insurer is named here as selling or not selling in Texas. That is a statement about a company’s business, it changes yearly, and we found no state or federal list we could open. Read it off your card and your plan documents.
Our Texas Campuses, and What Each One Publishes
We run more than one site in Texas and their published card lists are not the same, so the first question for admissions is which site, not whether.
The Right Step Houston publishes medical detox, residential rehab for substance abuse, partial hospitalization programming, intensive outpatient programming marked virtual, and aftercare planning [7].
Promises Dallas-Fort Worth publishes medical detox, residential rehab for substance abuse, residential rehab for mental health, intensive outpatient programming marked virtual, and aftercare planning [8].
We also run a site at College Station. Rather than list its levels from a roster, tell admissions what an assessment recommended and let them say which site runs it and what is open. Inpatient Rehab and Outpatient Rehab explain the two tiers most of these decisions turn on.
Paying Directly, and the Lines That Sit Outside a Quote
Self-pay is a negotiation, so bring questions rather than a number.
Get a price for each tier and the day count behind it. Establish what a deposit holds and what happens to it if an assessment moves you. Have the separately billed items named: medication, laboratory work, a psychiatric consultation and travel are the usual four, and in Texas the fourth is rarely trivial. If payment can be spread, get it in writing.
On travel specifically, the state’s members page lists a ride service among the things a Medicaid or CHIP member can look into [1]. This page makes no promise about who qualifies for it or what it covers — that is a question for the health plan named on your card.
Then ask what happens if the stay runs past the quote’s assumption. That is the gap that turns a planned bill into an unplanned one. How to Go to Rehab and Keep Your Job covers time away from work, and SAMHSA runs FindTreatment.gov as a locator.
Frequently Asked Questions
How much does rehab cost in Texas? Use our own published ranges as the yardstick: $2,000 to $25,000 and up for 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 our figures, not federal ones. No Texas average appears here, because an average across unnamed programs at different tiers is not a planning number.
How much does medical detox cost? Our cost page puts medical detox at $250 to $800 a day and partial hospitalization at $350 to $450 a day. Keep withdrawal management on its own line, because federal guidance says detoxification “is not substance abuse treatment and rehabilitation”. Ask whether a program’s figure starts before or after those days, since that single answer can move a quote substantially.
Is your intensive outpatient program in Texas in person or online? Both Texas campuses whose own pages we read mark it virtual. The Right Step Houston says clients live off-site and attend scheduled appointments online. Promises Dallas-Fort Worth says clients live off-site and attend scheduled appointments virtually. Confirm the format and the weekly session count with admissions, because it changes what the program costs you in travel and time.
Who decides what Texas Medicaid pays for? Your health plan, in the first instance. Texas Health and Human Services says most Medicaid services and all CHIP services are delivered through health plans, and that if you have questions about your health care or your doctor you contact your health plan. The department names STAR, STAR Kids, STAR Health, STAR+PLUS and CHIP, and says someone not in one of those may have Traditional Medicaid.
What is billed on top of a treatment quote? Typically medication, laboratory work, a psychiatric consultation and travel. Ask for the list in writing rather than accepting a single figure, and ask how many days the figure assumes. Travel deserves its own line in a state this size; the state’s members page lists a ride service for Medicaid and CHIP members, and the health plan on your card is who can say what it covers.
Sources
- Texas Health and Human Services. Medicaid and CHIP Members. https://www.hhs.texas.gov/services/health/medicaid-chip/medicaid-chip-members
- 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 Right Step Houston. The Right Step Houston, Texas — Levels of Care. 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/
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
