WHAT COULD? –
Dec, 19, 2025 – by Zoe Adams. I won’t imply that Reiner’s alleged murder of his parents would have been prevented if only he had received different care. But a high-profile tragedy like this one gives us the opportunity to interrogate what our addiction treatment system may be getting wrong. Nick recounted how he had hurled a rock through a window of a rehab facility in a desperate attempt to convince the staff that he needed more medication.
Problems exist across the spectrum of rehabs, from expensive, for-profit facilities to nonprofit ones: A 2017 investigation revealed that the two Massachusetts locations of Recovery Centers of America, a rehab chain that charges patients an average of $24,000 a month, was severely understaffed and did not even offer all patients basic counseling. More recently, RCA paid $2 million to settle a federal lawsuit that alleged that Maryland and Pennsylvania facilities billed Medicaid for patient services that were never received, alongside other charges. RCA outposts still made their way onto Newsweek’s 2025 list of the country’s top addiction treatment centers.
