Our Campuses and Apple Health
None of our treatment centers holds a Washington Medicaid contract right now. If you have other coverage as well, such as an employer plan, admissions can check whether it is one we take. For Apple Health providers, use the federal treatment locator at FindTreatment.gov or call the number on your Medicaid card.
Call admissions: 855-520-2898
Checked against our contract list on September 25, 2026. Plans change; admissions confirms coverage before you travel.
Yes. Addiction treatment is part of Apple Health, and Washington puts it in the same plan as everything else you use a doctor for. One card, one plan, one place to call.
That sounds like a small administrative detail. It is not. In several states you have to work out which separate company holds the addiction benefit before anyone will talk to you about it. Here you do not. Our team can also check your coverage in one call before you start.
This page covers who qualifies, how the plan is built, which tiers of care get approved, and what to do when the answer is no. For private insurance, start with whether insurance covers rehab.
Washington Apple Health: What It Is and Who Qualifies in Washington
Apple Health is Washington’s Medicaid program, run by the Health Care Authority. One agency handles Medicaid and behavioral health together, which is unusual and generally helpful.
Eligibility is decided by the state on income, household size, age, pregnancy and disability status. An article cannot tell you your answer. Apply, and let the Health Care Authority decide. People rule themselves out far more often than the state does.
Coverage comes in a plan rather than as a loose benefit. The Health Care Authority says Apple Health offers managed care plans in all regions statewide [1]. So wherever you are in Washington, there is a plan, and that plan is the entity you deal with.
Substance Use Treatment Under Apple Health
Here is the sentence that answers most of this page, in the state’s own words.
Your plan coordinates physical health, mental health, and substance use disorder treatment services to provide whole-person care under one health plan [1].
Three things follow. The plan on your card is the one that authorizes addiction treatment, so there is no separate vendor to hunt for. Mental health and substance use sit in the same place, which matters when both are in play and most people who need one need the other. And “coordinates” is doing real work in that sentence: the plan is supposed to join the pieces, which is a thing you are entitled to ask it to do.
There is a second plan type worth knowing about. The Health Care Authority says Apple Health offers Behavioral Health Services Only plans, known as BHSO, in all regions [1]. Clients found eligible for Apple Health coverage without a managed care plan, also known as fee-for-service, can select one of those [1]. So if your medical coverage is fee-for-service, your behavioral health care can still sit inside a plan.
Whichever applies to you, the question to ask is the same and it is short. Who authorizes a level of care for me, and what do they need in writing? Our levels of care explainer will help you name the tier.
Which Levels of Care Are Realistically Funded, and Which Are Not
Counseling and outpatient treatment clear most easily. Intensive outpatient and partial hospitalization sit above them, and both normally need an approval naming days or sessions.
Withdrawal management and residential care are the contested tiers, in Washington as everywhere. SAMHSA’s detoxification protocol sets out the settings in which withdrawal management happens, from a physician’s office through freestanding facilities to acute care inpatient, along with the ASAM placement levels behind them [2]. A plan is choosing a placement level rather than choosing whether to help, and it wants clinical notes that support the level you asked for.
So the assessment is the thing. Dated, written, with a named clinician and a named level of care on it. Carry it to every call.
If someone is having a seizure, is unresponsive or has trouble breathing, call 911. For a mental-health crisis call or text 988.
Working out what will pay for treatment in Washington
We run two campuses in this state, both in Clark County. The Recovery Village Ridgefield cards medical detox, inpatient treatment, partial hospitalization programming, intensive outpatient programming, dual diagnosis treatment and medically-assisted treatment on its own page, and our detox center in Vancouver sits about 14 miles from it. A benefits check before admission is what settles who pays at which tier.
See treatment options in Washington
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The Recovery Village Ridgefield is part of our family of treatment centers. See the Recovery Village Ridgefield campus.
Managed Care Plans, and Finding Out Which One Holds Your Benefit
The plan name is on the card and that is where to start. Because Washington keeps physical and behavioral health in one plan [1], you should not be told that addiction treatment is somebody else’s department. If you are told that, ask again.
Four questions, and write the answers down with a date and a name.
What level of care is approved for me, and for how long? What do you need from a clinician before you decide? Who files for continued days once treatment starts? And if you refuse, what is the appeal route and the deadline?
The appeal question is the one people leave out. An appeal rests on the written assessment, so keep that document whatever happens next. Our page on getting into rehab shows where the approval falls in the sequence.
The IMD Exclusion, and Why Residential Beds Are Scarce
One federal rule explains more about residential scarcity than anything happening in Olympia, and it is aimed squarely at plans like Washington’s.
Where a managed care plan covers an adult aged 21 to 64 as an inpatient in an institution for mental diseases, federal rules cap what the state may pay for. The facility has to be a hospital giving mental health or substance use disorder inpatient care, or a sub-acute facility giving crisis residential services. And the stay has to be short: no more than 15 days inside the monthly payment period [3].
Fifteen days is a payment boundary, not a clinical opinion. It is one reason a residential approval can come back shorter than a clinician asked for, and the reason a step-down plan belongs in the first conversation rather than the last. Ask what follows residential or inpatient care, and who will deliver it, before anybody is discharged.
When Apple Health Is Not a Route to Our Washington Campuses, and What Is
We run two campuses here, and they do different jobs.
The Recovery Village Ridgefield is in Ridgefield, about 126 miles south of Seattle and 20 miles north of Portland in a straight line. Its own page cards medical detox, inpatient treatment, partial hospitalization programming, intensive outpatient programming, dual diagnosis treatment and medically-assisted treatment [4]. The Recovery Village Ridgefield Detox Center is in Vancouver, about 14 miles from the Ridgefield campus and 11 miles northeast of Portland, and it is a detox center [5]. If you are in the Portland metro, both are closer to you than anything in Oregon, and crossing the river is a coverage question as well as a drive. Put that to your plan first.
From Spokane, the honest figure is about 282 miles, which is most of a day. Admissions is the right place to work out whether the level of care justifies the distance. Our nationwide directory lists the rest, and you can read more about The Recovery Village Ridgefield on its own page.
Whether either campus is a funded option under your plan is a question for the plan and for admissions. No coverage claim about an individual policy is made here. If the tier recommended is refused, take the funded lower tier, keep the assessment, and appeal inside the deadline. Our guide to keeping your job during rehab covers the worry that usually sits underneath.
Marketplace, Employer and Self-Pay Alternatives
Washington runs its own health insurance exchange. CMS lists Washington among the state-based exchanges for plan year 2026, operating Washington Health Plan Finder, one of 21 states in that group [6].
What such a plan owes you is set federally. Mental and behavioral health services are essential health benefits, so every Marketplace plan includes psychotherapy and counseling, inpatient mental and behavioral health services, and treatment for substance use disorder [7]. A pre-existing condition cannot be a reason to refuse you or to charge more, and a substance use disorder counts as one [7]. No essential health benefit may carry a yearly or lifetime dollar limit [7].
Federal parity law sits on top of that. 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 [8]. 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 [8]. Plans from small employers are not covered directly; they get comparable protection through the Affordable Care Act’s essential health benefits requirement.
On employer coverage, our Cigna guide lists what to ask. Paying privately is the third route, and the ranges we publish sit on our rehab cost page, where medical detox is usually the costliest stretch.
Frequently Asked Questions
Does Apple Health pay for drug and alcohol rehab? Yes. The Health Care Authority says your plan coordinates physical health, mental health and substance use disorder treatment services under one health plan, so addiction treatment is part of what the plan on your card covers. What you are offered still turns on an assessment and on the level of care a clinician documents, so get that in writing early.
Is Apple Health behavioral health handled by a separate company? No, and that is the thing most worth knowing here. Washington keeps it in the same plan as your physical health, which the Health Care Authority describes as whole-person care under one health plan. If a member services line tells you addiction treatment is another department’s problem, ask again, and ask who authorizes a level of care for you.
What is a BHSO plan, and who gets one? BHSO stands for Behavioral Health Services Only. The Health Care Authority says Apple Health offers BHSO plans in all regions, and that clients found eligible for Apple Health without a managed care plan, also called fee-for-service, can select one. So if your medical coverage is fee-for-service, your behavioral health care can still sit inside a plan.
Does Apple Health cover medical detox? Withdrawal management is part of the continuum Medicaid funds, and approval turns on documented medical necessity rather than on a fixed rule. SAMHSA’s detoxification protocol describes a range of settings and placement levels for it, from a physician’s office to acute care inpatient. Ask for the assessment first, because that is what creates the record an approval needs.
What is the difference between your two Washington campuses? The Recovery Village Ridgefield cards medical detox, inpatient treatment, partial hospitalization programming, intensive outpatient programming, dual diagnosis treatment and medically-assisted treatment. The Recovery Village Ridgefield Detox Center in Vancouver is a detox center, about 14 miles away and 11 miles northeast of Portland. Admissions will say which one fits the level of care you have been recommended.
Sources
- Washington State Health Care Authority. Apple Health Managed Care. State of Washington. https://www.hca.wa.gov/free-or-low-cost-health-care/i-need-medical-dental-or-vision-care/apple-health-managed-care
- Center for Substance Abuse Treatment. Detoxification and Substance Abuse Treatment, Chapter 2: Settings, Levels of Care, and Patient Placement. Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK64109/
- Legal Information Institute. 42 CFR 438.6 — Special contract provisions related to payment. Cornell Law School. https://www.law.cornell.edu/cfr/text/42/438.6
- The Recovery Village. The Recovery Village Ridgefield — Levels of Care. Advanced Recovery Systems. https://www.therecoveryvillage.com/locations/ridgefield/
- The Recovery Village. The Recovery Village Ridgefield Detox Center, Vancouver. Advanced Recovery Systems. https://www.therecoveryvillage.com/locations/vancouver/
- Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, Center for Consumer Information and Insurance Oversight. State-based Exchanges for Plan Year 2026. https://www.cms.gov/cciio/resources/fact-sheets-and-faqs/state-marketplaces
- HealthCare.gov. Mental Health and Substance Abuse Coverage. Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services. 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
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
