The Rest of the Story - The CRC Health Group Response

The following is a statement by CRC Health Group responding to a July 18th article by Art Levine in Salon Magazine Online titled "Dark side of a Bain success."

This article by Levine is mostly presidential politics and only incidentally about CRC Health Group, a corporation providing substance abuse and mental health care to thousands of children, spouses, individuals and families. In short, the article questions presidential candidate Romney's character because he benefits financially from Bain Capital, which invested in CRC Health Group, where there have been some allegations of negligence and abuse. It asserts "Bain is known for its relentless obsession with maximizing shareholder value and revenues." (i.e. they are mostly about money). The point seems to be that somehow the existence of allegations of abuse and negligence in a corporation invested in by Bain Capital is a negative statement on presidential candidate Romney's character.

CRC Health Group in this response explains the other side of the story by describing the material they had supplied to author Levine that he choose to ignore. Many parents and other individuals had offered to provide their testimonies to Levine about the quality treatment they or their children had received in a CRC Health Group program, but their perspectives were not used. CRC had described to Levine the level of professionalism and mental health credentials the staff have and systems for quality control and to provide quality treatment, but that information was ignored. In short, the author was making a political point and cherry picked perspectives to include only those that supported his political pre-conclusion.

The original article can be found at Salon: Dark Side of a Bain Success

To be fair, readers should read this statement alongside the article by Levine, and make up their own minds once they have the rest of the story.

~ Lon Woodbury

July 20, 2012

To the Editor
Salon.com
Via email

Art Levine's article, "Dark Side of a Bain Success," is inaccurate, unbalanced, and disheartening.

Mr. Levine makes treatment seem as though it's about money. In fact, we believe it's about helping people -- the work- and life-changing treatment to help afflicted children, spouses, individuals and families. The 30,000 individuals we serve each day are just the tip of the iceberg. According to the U.S. Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA), there are 23 million Americans who need but do not receive alcohol and drug abuse treatment. The failures of non-intervention are disastrous. According to Department of Justice surveys, two-thirds of arrestees test positive for illegal drugs. Drug abuse costs the nation tens of thousands of deaths and according to the Research Triangle, $200 billion a year in hospitalization, lost productivity, and prison terms.

The article lacks journalistic balance. Although there are myriad examples and success stories, Mr. Levine does not include anything from the thousands of our clients who, after treatment, have repeatedly cited quality of care, understanding of their addiction issues, and improved family relationships and trust. He failed to interview referrals provided by CRC who had positive stories and, in the one instance where he did, the positive testimonial was buried at the end of a very long article. Mr. Levine failed to reference any of the extensive staff and top executive interviews provided to him by CRC. Instead, the article relies extensively on organizations that exist to criticize youth treatment programs, "critics" with no first-hand knowledge of the events they purport to describe, and the selective republication of erroneous information in earlier media reports. Mr. Levine also fails to mention that we are prohibited by law from discussing specific cases or patient care, while the "critics" and family members making allegations against CRC have no such restraints. The net result: a sensational, politicized article that attempts to draw broad conclusions from one-sided accounts of a handful of episodes over the last 10-15 years.

Mr. Levine clearly began his reporting with a biased perspective, specifically soliciting "survivors" of CRC and Aspen's treatment programs to be his sources. The vast majority of our estimated half a million clients served over our company's history would tell of positive outcomes, as our surveys and numerous testimonials indicate, yet Mr. Levine paid no attention to those. Instead, the article denigrates the industry's own audits and surveys, including those bodies that accredit all institutional health care providers in the country. We are apparently criticized for having internal policing and criticized for not having it. Would Mr. Levine not have the industry do everything possible? Would he have the industry not provide self-policing and standards? The article remarks that there are no studies that show that residential programs work, when in fact there is a body of research that clearly shows there is an important place in the continuum of care for residential treatment and the efficacy of all levels of care.

We work hard to provide the highest quality individual care and best scientific clinical practices and have actively invested in these areas, as we relayed to Mr. Levine.

Some of what we told to him, but he neglected to include: we are the only provider in this field to have a team of over 20 people solely dedicated to clinical quality that visit every facility and conduct comprehensive reviews of clinical practices, delivery of services, systems, operations, and policies and procedures, and make enhancements wherever needed; we reinvest in the development of superior clinical programming by sharing best practices and peer-developed solutions across facilities; we collaborate with the leading experts in this field, other providers and therapists to identify the latest evidence-based treatments; we have a Clinical Advisory Board of established behavioral health industry experts to provide expert guidance as we develop a cutting-edge treatment delivery system that encompasses the latest innovations and research, our own "CRC Treatment Model;" we deployed a Clinical Supervision System that was personally implemented by the leading expert in this field; we implemented a Clinical Outcomes Management System and a new system for administering patient satisfaction surveys that capture timely and candid feedback from our most important audience; we have a Vice President of Quality who conducts weekly quality meetings with the field to disseminate best practices.

CRC is a recognized leader in this field and has ranked in the top three for overall best practices by the MHCA (Mental Health Corporations of America). All of the aforementioned efforts are above and beyond any state, federal or industry mandated standards. And all of this was shared with Mr. Levine.

The bottom line is that as the nation's largest behavioral health and substance abuse treatment provider, CRC and its programs have long-been helping individuals and families, addressing the enormous national drug crisis and helping people to lead better, more productive lives. The only "Dark Side" to our work is that there is not enough treatment provided in America to save every troubled soul with a behavioral or substance abuse problem.

Sincerely,

Dr. Philip L. Herschman
Chief Clinical Officer
CRC Health Group
Cupertino, CA

For 28 years, Bain Capital has had an extraordinary record of integrity and of growing great companies. CRC Health's partnership with Bain Capital dates back to 2006 - long after Romney retired from the firm. Today CRC is the nation's largest substance abuse treatment and youth treatment provider, and our relationship with Bain Capital has made a significant difference in helping us expand to help even more people to overcome their addiction and behavioral challenges. Though Mitt Romney co-founded Bain Capital in 1984, he retired from the firm in February 1999. Since his retirement 13 years ago, Mr. Romney has played no role in the management of the firm or its investments. Attempts to distort and politicize the firm's record for the sake of attack politics are unfortunate - but not unexpected. At CRC, we have tuned out these distractions and remain focused on doing what we do best: helping our patients overcome their challenges so that they can lead healthy and satisfying lives.

CRC Health Group is the most comprehensive network of specialized behavioral care services in the nation. Since 1995, CRC Health has been achieving successful outcomes for individuals and families.

The Rest of the Story: The CRC Health Group Response