In this video, the CEO of High Watch Recovery Center says that parity raises addiction care to a level “where the provider for the person is making decisions that actually matter”
By the editors of TreatmentMagazine.com
For addiction treatment to be truly effective, it needs to be viewed in the same way as other medical disciplines. And that won’t happen until parity laws are vigorously enforced, says Jerry Schwab, CEO of High Watch Recovery Center, in this video from our Recovery Reimagined series.
To some degree, parity comes down to common sense. “The insurance companies can’t be expected to write blank checks, but I do think there are a lot of economies of scale. If you look at what is spent on a person over the course of a year from multiple relapses, and also rates that people pay, some of the rates are skewed.” He adds that parity is an important step in creating a system “where the provider for the person is making decisions that actually matter.”
Recovery Reimagined is a collaboration between TreatmentMagazine.com and the National Association of Addiction Providers (NAATP) that examines what is and isn’t working in the treatment of addiction and mental health issues. The conversation with Schwab was facilitated by Annie Peters, PhD, LP, who is director of research and education for the NAATP. You can read the entire interview here.
More Recovery Reimagined
Past Recovery Reimagined interviews include:
- John Kelly, founder of the Recovery Research Institute at Massachusetts General Hospital
- Matt Vogl, executive director of the National Mental Health Innovation Center (NMHIC) at the University of Colorado Anschutz Medical Campus
- Shari Hampton and Ester Nicholson, recovery coaches for the SHE RECOVERS Foundation
- Christina Simos, executive director of Friendly House in Los Angeles
Next up for Recovery Reimagined is David Whitesock, creator of the Recovery Capital Index (RCI). The RCI is holistic recovery tool that is designed to measure a person’s social, environmental and behavioral conditions.
Top photo: Shutterstock
