Top-Rated, Low-Cost Rehabs

Updated: October 12, 2020

Going to rehab is a huge investment – some rehabs cost over $20,000 a month. It’s important to choose carefully, but the sheer number of rehab choices can make finding the best option challenging. In fact, the 2016 N-SATS indicates that there are 16,000 rehab facilities across the country. To help you identify the best facilities in your state, we’ve determined which rehabs offering payment assistance were likely to be the best choice for the most people.

Overview of Our Methodology

List of Contenders

We compiled a list of rehab facilities using the official directory maintained by the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Administration (SAMHSA). Additionally, the information about each rehab that we used throughout our ranking process was obtained through SAMHSA’s database. When necessary, we verified information directly from the companies’ websites.

Summary of Our Filtering Process

In order to make sure that the rehabs we ranked meet the needs of most people to, we eliminated facilities with the characteristics listed below.

  • No Payment Assistance: Since many people aren’t able to afford rehab on their own, we only included rehabs that offered some type of payment assistance, such as sliding-scale fees or scholarships.
  • Exclusive Services: Any programs that only accepted certain types of clients were eliminated. Most often, this meant that facilities that only work with DUI/DWI clients were removed from our list of contenders.
  • Halfway Houses: Since these types of facilities (also called sober living or transitional living) only provide aftercare and not detox or treatment, they were removed from consideration unless they also provided additional rehab services.
  • Age Restrictions: Rehabs that were only for youth and don’t accept adults were filtered out. However, we weren’t able to filter out rehabs that didn’t accept youth as that data wasn’t available.
  • Veteran-Specific Rehabs: We removed rehabs that were only for Veterans. Usually, that meant eliminating VA rehabs.
  • Native American Rehabs: We removed rehabs that were exclusively for Native Americans.

Summary of Our Core Metrics

Below is a summary of the five core metrics that were used to evaluate each facility.

  • Rehabilitation Services Provided: We researched whether each facility offered services such as medication-assisted detoxification and opiate addiction treatment. The more services offered, the higher the score. This core metric accounted for 30% of the overall score.
  • Treatment Approaches: This category measured how many types of therapy and treatment each rehab offers. Cognitive Behavioral Therapy and Trauma-Related Counseling are both examples of the type of treatment options we were looking for. Treatment Approaches made up 25% of the final score.
  • Cost: Since we can’t determine the actual cost of each facility, we researched how many payment and insurance options each facility accepted. Rehabs that accept Medicaid, TRICARE, and Private Insurance scored higher than those that only accepted cash. This metric was weighted at 20%.
  • Special Programs for Unique Demographics: Rehabs that have treatment programs designed specifically for a higher number of unique demographics received a higher score on this metric. For example, some facilities offer treatment for victims of domestic abuse and for those who have co-occurring mental health disorders. This core metric made up 15% of the overall score.
  • Ancillary Services: Examples of ancillary services include transportation assistance and employment counseling or training. The number of extra services each program provided was counted, and those with the highest totals scored the best. The score of this core metric was assigned a weight of 10%.

How to Find the Top-Rated Rehabs Near You

To find out which rehabs are the highest rated near you, click your state from the list below and follow the link to your state. We list the 10 rehabs with the highest rating for that state and the three rehabs with the highest rating for the largest cities in the state.

Full Methodology Breakdown

Summary of Our Scoring Process

After filtering out rehabs that don’t provide payment assistance options in each state, and don’t meet the needs of most adults, we scored the remaining rehabs.

Here’s a summary of how we scored the rehabs in each state:

  • We started by establishing five core metrics
  • Then we identified 101 sub-metrics representing a distinct feature that each rehab program either had or didn’t have
  • With the exception of one sub-metric that resulted in a “-1,” each rehab was given +1 point for every feature they offered
  • After the points for every sub-metric were added together for each rehab, the program received a score between 0 and 10 for each of the five core metrics.
  • Finally, we weighted each core metric’s score and added the weighted scores together to determine the overall score for every rehab program

Examples of Our Scoring Process

We scored our core metric “Cost” with 10 sub-metrics

Nine total scores between 0 and 10 were given out for this core metric with a 1.25 point difference between each. The process we used to grade “Cost” for the 276 rehabs we evaluated in California is outlined below.

  • Each rehab was given +1 point for every payment method they accepted.
  • It was determined that there were nine unique scores
  • The scores were divided up evenly between 0 and 10, with an equal interval of “1.25” between each
  • The rehabs that only accepted one form of payment (cash in this case) were given a “0”
  • The rehabs that accept two forms of payment were given a “1.25”
  • The rehabs that accepted three forms of payment were given a “2.5,” and so on until we reached the top tier which all received a “10”

We assigned a 20% weight to the core metric “Cost”

Since not every core metric is equally important in determining the quality of the rehabs, we assigned weights to the core metrics that reflect their importance. Cost made up 20% of the overall score, while “Rehabilitation Services,” for example, accounted for 30%. Below is a detailed example of how we applied the weights.

  • If Rehab A was given a “7.5” in Cost, we would multiply “7.5” by “0.2”
  • If Rehab B was given a “5” in Cost, we would multiply “5” by “0.2”
  • Rehab A would receive 1.5 points from Cost in the final score
  • Rehab B would receive 1 point from Cost in the final score

The weighted scores from each core metric were added together to determine each rehab’s final score. Theoretically, rehabs that scored a “10” in every core metric would receive a “10” for their final score as well.

Solutions 4 Recovery scored a “9.38” on “Special Programs for Unique Demographics”

Solutions 4 Recovery, a rehab located in San Francisco, offers specially designed programs for 15 different groups of people:

  • Adult men
  • Adult women
  • Clients referred from the court/judicial system
  • Lesbian, gay, bisexual, or transgender (LGBT) clients
  • Persons who have experienced intimate partner violence/domestic violence
  • Persons who have experienced sexual abuse
  • Persons who have experienced trauma
  • Persons with co-occurring mental and substance abuse disorders
  • Persons with HIV or AIDS
  • Pregnant/postpartum women
  • Seniors or older adults
  • Transitional age young adults
  • Veterans
  • Active Duty Military
  • Military Families

Since Solutions 4 Recovery had the second highest number of programs (16 was the highest), the company was given the second highest score: “9.38.” We then applied the core metric’s weight (15%), so Solutions 4 Recovery’s weighted score for this core metric was 1.41.

Analysis of Each Core Metric

Rehabilitation Services Provided accounts for 30% of the overall score

This core metric was given the most weight because it measures what services are provided. Some of the sub-metrics include whether the rehab provides detoxification services, methadone treatment, and naltrexone treatment. The rehabs with the most rehabilitation services have a higher chance of being helpful for the most people.

Here’s a full list of the sub-metrics for Rehabilitation Services Provided:

  • Acamprosate (Campral®)
  • Buprenorphine detoxification
  • Buprenorphine maintenance
  • Buprenorphine maintenance for predetermined time
  • Prescribes/administer buprenorphine and/or naltrexone
  • Detoxification
  • Disulfiram (Antabuse®)
  • Do not treat opioid addiction (negative strike: “-1” if listed)
  • Do not accept use medication for opioid addiction (negative strike: “0” if listed)
  • Medications for psychiatric disorders
  • Methadone detoxification
  • Methadone
  • Methadone maintenance
  • Methadone maintenance for predetermined time
  • Naltrexone (oral)
  • Vivitrol® (injectable Naltrexone)
  • Relapse prevention from naltrexone

Note: Programs that don’t treat opioid addiction were penalized by subtracting one point from their score. Since the process we used to score each rehab counted each value listed as a point, a negative strike indicates that the score was adjusted to be sure rehabs didn’t receive a point for not accepting opioid addictions or not using opioid medication.

“Treatment Approaches” was given a weight of 25%

This core metric was given the second highest weight because the more evidence-based treatment approaches that each rehab offers, the better chance that addicts have for recovery.

The sub-metrics for “Treatment Approaches” are:

  • Cognitive/behavioral therapy
  • Dialectical behavioral therapy
  • Substance abuse counseling approach
  • Trauma-related counseling
  • Rational emotive behavioral therapy
  • 12-step facilitation approach
  • Brief intervention approach
  • Contingency management/motivational incentive
  • Motivational interviewing
  • Anger management
  • Matrix Model
  • Community reinforcement plus vouchers
  • Relapse prevention

“Cost” was weighted at 20%

Cost was the third most important consideration because it determined whether the rehab in question would be affordable for more or less people. For instance, if a facility doesn’t accept Medicaid, then a large percentage of people may not be able to afford its services. Likewise, most people won’t be able to pay out of pocket for companies that only accept cash or self-payment options.

Here are the sub-metrics for Cost:

  • Medicaid
  • Medicare
  • State-financed health insurance plan other than Medicaid
  • Private health insurance
  • Access to recovery (ATR) voucher
  • Federal, or any government funding for substance abuse programs
  • Military insurance (e.g., TRICARE)
  • Sliding fee scale (fee is based on income and other factors)
  • Payment assistance
  • No Payment Accepted (+10)

Note: Facilities that don’t charge (“no payment accepted”) are given +10 points to put them in the highest tier for this core metric to account for the fact that they are the most affordable option for everyone.

The weight for “Special Programs for Unique Demographics” is 15%

This core metric rewards rehabs that offer the most specialized programs. It’s given a lower weight than other metrics since the special programs are only useful to certain demographics. Rehabs without certain programs still accept people in those demographics, they just don’t have a program specifically designed to meet the unique challenges that they face.

The sub-metrics in this core metric are:

  • Adolescents
  • Adult men
  • Adult women
  • Clients referred from the court/judicial system
  • Lesbian, gay, bisexual, or transgender (LGBT) clients
  • Persons who have experienced intimate partner violence/domestic violence
  • Persons who have experienced sexual abuse
  • Persons who have experienced trauma
  • Persons with co-occurring mental and substance abuse disorders
  • Persons with HIV or AIDS
  • Pregnant/postpartum women
  • Seniors or older adults
  • Transitional age young adults
  • Veterans
  • Active Duty Military
  • Military Families

“Ancillary Services” was assigned the least weight – 10%

While extra services in this category are helpful, they aren’t key to recovery for most people. For instance, “assistance with obtaining social services” can be very helpful for many people, but it doesn’t usually directly impact a person’s rehabilitation experience.

Here’s a full list of the sub-metrics for Ancillary Services:

  • Acupuncture
  • Aftercare/continuing care
  • Alcohol Detoxification
  • Assistance with obtaining social services
  • Benzodiazepines Detoxification
  • Breathalyzer or blood alcohol testing
  • Case management
  • Cocaine Detoxification
  • Comprehensive mental health assessment
  • Comprehensive substance abuse assessment
  • Consumer-run (peer-support) services
  • Discharge Planning
  • Domestic violence services – family or partner
  • Drug or alcohol urine screening
  • Early intervention for HIV
  • Employment counseling or training
  • Family counseling offered
  • Group counseling offered
  • Health education services other than HIV/AIDS or hepatitis
  • Hepatitis education, counseling, or support
  • HIV or AIDS education, counseling, or support
  • HIV testing
  • Housing services
  • Individual counseling offered
  • Interim services for clients
  • Marital/couples counseling offered
  • Mental health services
  • Methamphetamines Detoxification
  • Nicotine replacement therapy
  • Non-nicotine smoking/tobacco cessation medications
  • Opioids Detoxification
  • Outreach to persons in the community
  • Screening for Hepatitis B
  • Screening for Hepatitis C
  • Screening for mental health disorders
  • Screening for substance abuse
  • Screening for tobacco use
  • Self-help groups
  • Smoking/tobacco cessation counseling
  • Social skills development
  • STD testing
  • Substance abuse education
  • TB screening
  • Transportation assistance
  • Treatment for gambling disorder
  • Treatment for internet use disorder
  • Treatment for non-substance abuse addiction disorder

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