Acadia Healthcare, one of the largest chains of psychiatric hospitals in America, had to shell out over $267 million in criminal and punitive damages for two lawsuits in 2019, but the company now has at least six more similar lawsuits pending.

     The first 2019 lawsuit was for “luring patients into its facilities and holding them against their will” in order to increase and extend insurance profits. Acadia paid out $17 million in that suit. The second 2019 lawsuit was for placing a foster child under their care in the home of a man they knew had been “sexually abusing and sexually assaulting foster children placed in his care.” That one cost Acadia $250 million in punitive damages.

     The first of these new Acadia lawsuits, filed November 19, 2024, has charges similar to those of that first 2019 case. Apparently Acadia is a slow learneror has enough money not to worry about paying these huge settlements. Indianapolis TV station WRTV reports that a New Whiteland, Indiana, woman, Maria Reagan, has just sued Options Behavioral Health System and its parent company, Acadia Healthcare, alleging she was held against her will and left to clean up another patient’s feces.

     She was held there for eight days without ever having seen a psychiatrist in person. Her lawsuit also alleges that she personally witnessed staff denying another patient her required insulin for three days. 

     On September 22nd this year, Meagan found herself undergoing a mental health episode and went to the emergency room at Community Hospital South. “I was looking forward to going there to get the help that I needed,” said Reagan.

     Reagan expected to be there for 72 hours, but instead she was held against her will as a patient for eight days. Options Behavioral Health System staff used threats and intimidation to prevent Reagan from leaving the facility, per her lawsuit. She was only given broken crayons and coloring pages for “help.” 

     There are currently four other lawsuits that have been filed against Options Behavioral Health System and its parent company Acadia Healthcare. Each alleges that the facility held patients against their will without any medical basis.

     Additionally, a lawsuit has been filed against Acadia alleging that the psychiatric hospital chain has hidden from its investors its practices of locking up psychiatric patients against their will—when detaining them was not medically necessary—in order to maximize insurance payouts and thereby boost the company’s revenues.

     This class action investor lawsuit was filed this October 21st in the U.S. District Court for the Middle District of Tennessee against Acadia Healthcare Company, Inc. and various Acadia executives and alleges securities fraud under the Securities Exchange Act of 1934. The complaint says that Acadia hid its illegal practices from investors, causing them financial loss.

     On September 1, 2024, the New York Times had published an article on an investigation it conducted of Acadia and had noted publicly that Acadia had “lured patients into its facilities and held them against their will, even when detaining them was not medically necessary.”

     On September 3, 2024, the first trading day after the publication of the article, Acadia’s share price fell $3.72 or 4.5%. The current lawsuit alleges that because of this news, Acadia’s stock price fell $12.38 or 16.4% and that because Acadia concealed these unethical and illegal practices from investors, investors were harmed financially after Acadia’s share price dropped so much.

     This current batch of lawsuits against Acadia could cost the company many millions more dollars in settlements. How much profit must they be making to be able to shrug off these huge financial penalties?

     They charge as much as $2200 a day at their 253 behavioral health facilities, with over 11,000 beds, in 39 states and Puerto Rico, for services such as inpatient psychiatric hospitals, specialty treatment facilities, residential treatment centers, and outpatient clinics.  

     Guess that’s enough.