Hazelden Foundation is re-entering the Florida market.
Five years after pulling out of a troubled partnership in West Palm Beach, the famed Minnesota alcohol and drug addiction treatment center said it plans to open a 48-bed facility in Naples, Fla.
The new facility is near Naples Community Hospital and will open for business next March. In addition to Hazelden's core residential program, it will offer outpatient and family services. Hazelden will invest $8 million in the new center, to be housed in a converted condominium building.
"We are thrilled to bring back to Florida Hazelden's ongoing commitment to help more people find and sustain lifelong recovery from substance abuse," said chief executive Mark Mishek.
The 60-year-old Hazelden, which put Minnesota at the center of the addiction recovery movement, has struggled in recent years with changes in the health care market. The recovery movement was pummeled by managed care in the 1990s as health insurers favored cheaper short stays and outpatient treatment over the Minnesota model of costly, inpatient care.
Center City-based Hazelden and its peers now compete with cheaper outpatient treatments on one end and spa-like treatment centers catering to celebrities on the other.
Like other health care organizations, Hazelden has also been hit by the bad economy. Revenue in 2008 was flat at $109 million. Occupancy this year is at 87 to 88 percent, down from the 100 percent Hazelden previously enjoyed.
At the Naples center, Hazelden will partner with local providers to keep costs down, including using local psychiatrists and psychologists as well as facilities at neighboring Naples Community Hospital. While the traditional 28-day program at Center City costs $27,000, the Naples facility will charge $16,000 to $18,000.
