Almost all treatment centers make you go cold turkey. The ones that use methadone, LAAM, or buprenorphine will advertise that fact if you call them or look at their web site.

Forget about privacy even if you pay cash and don't give them an insurance card. I know someone who checked himself into a quite prestigious place and he paid cash (well, by check). But he made no attempt to hide his identity.

Well, when he checked in they took his wallet and they must have found his health insurance card there. He told them he was paying cash. No matter. Even though he paid his bill in full they submitted a claim to his health insurance company for the full amount. He called them after he got the statement from his health insurance (paid through his job) and the rehab center said, "Oh, we're very sorry, it was a mistake. ... We'll send a refund to the insurance company." So he ended up paying for it. And they'd already reported it to the Medical Information Bureau (MIB), so if he ever applies for health insurance as a self-employed person it will show up that he received drug rehab treatment as an opiate addict and then they can deny him coverage or charge an outrageous rate. And if he makes a big fuss by suing the rehab place for violating his privacy, he'll lose what little privacy those records have.

Good luck trying to expunge records from the MIB. You have to sue them and they will try to keep the records in there because they work for the insurance companies and the insurance companies would want that information to stay there.

So if you want to be anonymous, be anonymous. Totally. As far as i know ... as long as they don't administer any controlled substances, it's no crime to check into a rehab center under a false name. And leave your wallet at home.

Use your health insurance? It will be with you for the rest of your life. It's with my friend, and he's out the money to boot.

Trampy