NAATP turns up the heat on ethical conduct

The National Association of Addiction Treatment Providers (NAATP) continues to shine a light on ethical shortcomings in the treatment industry, and policies that it expects to finalize in 2016 will turn up the heat on its own members' practices.

NAATP's year-end letter to members and colleagues states that by the time it holds its annual conference in May, it will have published an ethics complaint policy and procedure guide to accompany the association's ethics code. The Dec. 30 letter states, “All NAATP members must now adopt the ethics code and may be dropped from membership for violating the code.”

NAATP executive director Marvin Ventrell said the decision to institute a formal ethics complaint procedure within the membership organization was a recent one. While he says he cannot elaborate on the details of how the procedure will work until the NAATP board of directors considers final approval in February, he adds, “But we have reached a consensus that NAATP members must be held to a high ethical standard and may be terminated as members if they do not adhere to that, after a fair process.”

At the most recent NAATP annual conference last May, organization leaders expressed that the association's best defense against ethical misdeeds involved highlighting the ethics standards that a growing number of member centers are adopting. Yet the decision to launch a complaint procedure and to subject members to the potential for removal from the organization indicates that NAATP has decided to take a more aggressive position when issues such as patient brokering or deceptive advertising practices surface.

NAATP stated in the year-end letter, “While the existence of unethical practice by some of our colleagues is not news to you, it is important that you know where NAATP stands. We stand with the true, values-based service providers, and we are dedicated to promoting best practices within a collegial, professional, and ethical community. Ultimately it is values that separate us and join us together, while profit motive alone is not a NAATP value.”