Pch Treatment Center's Online Review Report Card

My daughter was treated at PCH for severe OCD several years ago. I cannot say enough great things about this program. It changed her life. When she walked out, she was able to fully live and thrive once again. PCH gave her the tools to do so. I also love that they didn’t push medication unless they felt it absolutely necessary. It’s a tough program bc of the number of exposures patients are asked to do but it worked.

I just wanted to follow up on my review and let people know who might be considering this program, to please stay away from this program. I have received over 50 calls and emails wanting to discuss my daughter's horrible experience. I'm happy I was able to let these families know how fraudulent Dr Ball's program is. I've also been in contact with other family members who have had similar horrible experiences in Dr. Ball's program. Fortunately, our daughter has been getting great treatment and is doing extremely well in a legitimate program. If any parent would like to discuss, you can reach out to my email or phone anytime. Dr Ball is a fraud and is getting wealthy on this horrible program. As I had mentioned in my previous post, Dr. Ball has still never reached out to my wife and me to discuss the situation. He never offered a refund even though our daughter became worse during her stay. She was discharged by his team saying she was 100% doing great and had no further symptoms, which was 100% the opposite. Please stay away from this very dangerous program.

Because of my bad review the owner of the program is now sending me a generic response about not being able to respond to fraudulent posts. My post is anything but fraudulent so let me remind them of what they put my family through: WHY I CAN'T RECOMMEND PCH As the mother of a former PCH patient, I do not recommend this treatment center. In fact, I believe my 23-year-old daughter, who dealt with suicidal ideation in the wake of her brother's cancer battle, might be alive today if PCH had been simply been honest with us. NOT LICENSED FOR RESIDENTIAL TREATMENT This is not a licensed residential treatment center; they are only certified for intensive outpatient, a fact PCH neglected to share with us. From the start, their representative was not transparent about how their off-site client living arrangements would affect the type and amount of our insurance reimbursement--a detail that cost us tens of thousands of dollars. Did they care more about receiving our $28,000-$32,000 a month (upfront) than potentially crippling us financially? Were they taking advantage of our desperation? WHAT FELT LIKE BAIT AND SWITCH After she called Blue Shield, our PCH intake person told me we had "great coverage" that would pay 50 percent for the first $7,000 out of pocket for out-of-network treatment; after that, it would pay 100 percent. Before admitting my daughter, I also called to verify this was an accurate reimbursement for out-of-network residential treatment and Blue Shield confirmed it, so we thought we were covered. Two months later, we found out PCH never even billed for residential treatment. Instead, they only billed for intensive outpatient treatment (3 hrs/day, 3 days/week)--a term we'd never even heard before! Billing for intensive outpatient resulted in reimbursement of just a few hundred dollars a week--a tiny fraction of the tens of thousands we had paid upfront each month. It was only when I called PCH, asking for preauthorization for my daughter's third month, that they told me our insurance was being billed for intensive outpatient. I couldn't believe it! "What are you talking about?" I kept asking. "She LIVES there." This new employee couldn't/wouldn't explain it to me, simply saying they were billing correctly. During another call, the same employee became so flustered she put on her supervisor, who was also unable to provide me with a direct answer. She then connected me with PCH's CFO, who acted defensive from the start and began interrogating the family friend I had on the phone with me. It took 5 minutes before the CFO finally admitted the truth: under Blue Shield, PCH doesn't qualify as a residential treatment facility. That's because they aren't even licensed as one. If the CFO knew this, why didn't our intake person--and why on earth didn't she tell us this from the start? NOT SECURE ENOUGH FOR HIGH-RISK PATIENTS Even though PCH talks about residential or in-residence treatment on their website (I have bills listing my daughter's care as residential), a true residential treatment center is locked-down, meaning patients can't leave the premises unsupervised. This is a very important distinction and one that many frantic parents may not realize as they seek out a safe place for their loved one. Even though PCH is supposed to be focused on mental issues, many patients there had addiction problems as well, and this often frightened my daughter. When her brother began losing his battle with cancer, my daughter became emotionally depressed and chemically unbalanced. She would have been much safer in a true residential facility. PCH lets its patients leave alone on "passes" for hours at a time, and after my daughter ended her life, I found a note describing how she planned to carry out her suicide while off on a PCH pass. A HORRIBLE EXPERIENCE The truth: my daughter wasn't safe at PCH, but then I didn't know that all treatment centers weren't set up like this. I do know she was miserable there and seemed to be getting worse, not better. After realizing they hadn't been forthright with us, we pulled her from PCH. If she'd been someplace more secure (and transparent) all along, our story might have ended differently. Instead, my daughter came home and went into intensive private therapy. I wish I'd admitted her to a real residential treatment center, but after such a horrible experience at PCH, we were wary. Once she took her life, I told her PCH Program Director, yet no one in upper management bothered to drop us a card or extend their condolences. Total silence. My whole experience with PCH was not only negative, but also heartbreaking.

I called them today x 6 hours for info, no help or live Intake rep, either an outsourced Answering Service rep far far away who knows nothing about their services answers who will simply "have someone call you back later" or just a taped voicemail message. When called later & pressed 2 for "Administration", the young lady was NOT nice or friendly & simply says that she will take a message & have "someone will call you back." Bad reviews here & on G. Cash pay only. They say they don't treat known diagnosis or like the modern medical model, but prefer their way. Sounds like a disaster. Ominous.

It is with a grateful heart we write this most positive review of PCH. Our daughter, who was a dual diagnosis client, received excellent care while attending PCH. The caring, well trained, supportive staff provided individual daily schedules consisting of group sessions, individual counseling/therapy that were reviewed and altered based on our daughters ever changing needs. As a result, our daughter became engaged with the programming offered and benefited greatly from her experience there. The optional family group also helped our other family members to gain new insights and understanding of our family dynamics. Overall, our daughter's experience at PCH had a real world, positive impact on our entire family.

Our young adult son has OCD, which we first found out about a decade ago. One of the hardest working, most courageous people we know, he has had an extremely difficult time with intrusive thoughts for years. He has tried other facilities and programs, but nothing really stuck until he went to PCH. Their process and commitment to education, coaching, therapy, medication management and life skills has benefited him more than any thing else he has tried in the past. The way they go about working with 'clients' (as they call them) is unique, thorough and extremely supportive and conducted in a friendly non-threatening environment, allowing clients to understand their issues and manage them in a sustainable way to live a productive and meaningful life. They also involve and rely on the family so we understand how we can best support our son and ourselves. We are very grateful to PCH for helping our young adult son get his life back on track and would highly recommend their OCD program. We understand that OCD may be a lifelong challenge, but PCH seems to provide the support, education and tools to be able to manage it. We are all hopeful and that is extremely important.

Thanks to this team for doing such a fantastic job. Our residents consistently arrive from this program with a strong foundation and a real chance at lasting recovery. Grateful for the partnership.

Terrible place

Care quality and professionalism of each therapist is at highest level possible. Great psychiatrists, excellent therapists and caring and courteous staff. Also Program directors are right on individualized programs to each person needs. Group therapy is exceptional with variety of psychological approaches for all different types of psychological disorders and addictions.

This is where you want to go if you need to heal/overcome something difficult. The staff and mental health professionals are impeccable and truly care about each individual in their care. PCH's approach is so above and beyond other centers. Not even close. I spoke with other patients during my stay who had visited multiple voluntary centers in Southern California and other states too and PCH was the best. Management is also open to receiving feedback from their clients to constantly make improvements for all!! This is a big decision for anyone selecting a center for themselves and or a loved one. Most people tend to write reviews in this space more so for things that did not go well than when things do go well. Keep this in mind. It's not like restaurants where people tend to share both the good and the bad. Take your time and visit PCH and meet their staff before deciding. Their housing accommodations are comfortable and clean. The food is great too!!