Legal and ethical issues
In 2019, Acadia paid $17 million to resolve the allegations made by federal prosecutors in West Virginia that the company had overbilled Medicaid for blood and urine tests.[6][17]
Acadia formerly operated, through its subsidiary Youth and Family Centered Services of New Mexico, a facility known as Desert Hills.[18][19] In 2019, Acadia shut down the facility after revelations of sexual abuse.[19] Acadia ultimately settled five lawsuits arising from abuse at the facility.[19][18] The included one suit, filed by the guardians of a New Mexico minor, in which a Rio Arriba County, New Mexico jury ordered Acadia to pay $405 million in compensatory and punitive damages;[19][18] in October 2023, Acadia reached an agreement to settle this case and two others for $400 million, without admitting liability.[18]
In January 2024, the Utah Department of Health and Human Services ordered Midvale's Highland Ridge Hospital to hire an independent monitor for ten hours a week to oversee safety compliance.[20] After another series of safety violations in February, licensing officials required Highland to increase oversight to 40 hours per week.[20] In April 2024, Acadia announced plans to close the facility the following month.[21][22]
In June 2024, Acadia and fellow for-profit Universal Health Services were found by the Senate Committee on Finance and the Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions to have endangered the welfare of children in their facilities as a result of a business model that optimized revenue instead of optimizing care.[3][23][24] The committees' report stated the problems "occur inevitably and by design: they are the direct causal result of a business model that has the incentive to treat children as payouts and provide less than adequate safety and behavioral health treatment in order to maximize operating and profit margin".[23]
Acadia has been criticized for detaining patients in its facilities against their will, even when holding them was not medically necessary.[7] Patients have been held under mental health laws designed to protect them from being a danger to themselves or others, thus increasing payments to the company.[7] Some were released only after a formal complaint or a lawsuit.[7]
In September 2024, Acadia agreed to pay $19.84 million to settle the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC)'s allegations of numerous legal violations, including a false billing for medically unnecessary inpatient services.[25] It also was penalized $1.39 million for preventing whistleblowers from coming forward.[26]
Acadia has actively lobbied against bipartisan proposal in the U.S. Congress to expand access to methadone treatment by allowing opioid use disorder patients to pick up methadone at pharmacies, rather than going to clinics.[6]
In December 2024, The New York Times published an investigative report, based on 60 interviews with current and former employees at Acadia's methadone facilities, that found that Acadia personnel frequently falsified medical records used for billing, and often gave methadone to people who did not have opioid addictions but were dependent on other drugs. The report also found the company's methadone counselors carry large caseloads, sometimes more than twice the limits set by state regulators.[6]
On February 13, 2025, Acadia Healthcare announced the closure of Timberline Knolls, a mental health treatment facility in Lemont, Illinois. The decision comes after multiple allegations of misconduct and legal challenges.[27] In 2018, a licensed counselor at the facility was accused of sexually assaulting several patients, allegedly admitting to going "too far" with a 29-year-old patient during three separate therapy sessions. In 2023, another former patient filed a lawsuit against Timberline Knolls, alleging she was repeatedly raped by an employee while receiving treatment for bipolar disorder, borderline personality disorder, and suicidal thoughts.[28]
