How to Verify Rehab Accreditation

A seal in a website footer is a picture. You are trying to tell a real program from a brochure, and the record is somewhere else. NIAAA's Alcohol Treatment Navigator separates three words people mix together, and the separation is the whole method. A license is permission to practice. Certification is extra training for a person. Accreditation is an independent review of a facility. SAMHSA's quality checklist says programs and their health care professionals should be licensed and accredited. Passing a review is evidence of a process. It does not promise that you will do well there.

How to look the record up is the subject. The choosing guide covers the wider decision, including withdrawal care and payment. The residential checklist includes NIAAA's table of staff credentials. What stays here is the facility's license and the facility's accreditation. No center is named.

If someone is in withdrawal with a seizure, will not wake, or cannot breathe, call 911 before you compare seals. For a mental health crisis, call or text 988.

The state license, without a fake board list

NIAAA says a license is issued by the state where the provider is based. Each state sets its own criteria and its own renewal schedule. The rules differ for physicians, therapists, and treatment programs. For a program, NIAAA's minimum is a current license, usually from the state agency that oversees addiction or mental health services.

There is no single national form. Ask the program for four facts: the legal name on the license, the license number, the agency that issued it, and the expiration or renewal date. Then use that agency. Its site should be a state government address. Search that site for a public license lookup, or call the agency and ask how a member of the public confirms a facility license. Match the legal name and the city. A license for a different address is a different record until someone shows you, in the state file, that the building in front of you is covered.

A scanned certificate in an email is weaker than that file. A sentence that says the program is nationally licensed, with no state agency attached, does not match NIAAA's definition. The license comes from the state.

Accreditation is a second lookup

Accreditation, in NIAAA's wording, means the program passed a thorough independent review of procedures, records, staff, and facilities. It is usually awarded for three to five years. Then the review has to be repeated. The agencies NIAAA says most often do that review are The Joint Commission, CARF, and the National Committee for Quality Assurance. The credential table also lists the Council on Accreditation as an above-minimum mark for programs, next to counselors who are licensed and trained to treat addiction.

Ask which body accredited the program, which site the certificate covers, and when the current period ends. Then check the body's own search, not the logo.

The Joint Commission publishes a search for accredited organizations that provide substance use disorder treatment. Its description of that list says each organization is reviewed at least every three years against national standards, including policies and practices for care, hiring, leadership, emergency plans, and facilities. If the legal name is missing, ask whether a parent hospital's accreditation is being offered in place of a review of this program. A hospital seal and a program review are not automatically the same document.

CARF tells the public to use its provider search to find providers it has accredited or certified. Search the program name and the place. CARF accreditation is an outside review. It does not replace the state license. NIAAA says its five signs of higher-quality alcohol care, credentials among them, are meant to help people compare options. It also says there are no guarantees. Providers with more of those signs are likely to offer higher-quality treatment, which should increase the likelihood of success. Likelihood is not a promise about one stay.

NIAAA's three-to-five-year window and the Joint Commission's "at least every three years" line are both public descriptions. They are not a single national expiration date. Use the date on the record you found.

Certification is about a person

Certification, NIAAA says, is a sign of specialty training, often advanced coursework and an exam, usually from an independent board. A physician may be board certified in addiction medicine. A psychiatrist may be board certified in addiction psychiatry. A counselor may hold a certification such as National Certified Addictions Counselor or Master Addiction Counselor. That mark is about the person. It is not the facility's license, and it is not the facility's accreditation.

A staff biography can be true and still leave the building unchecked. Ask for both. The residential checklist is where the staff floors are spelled out. You do not need to repeat that table on the phone if you have already asked who assesses you, who leads counseling, and who can prescribe.

Records that are easy to mistake for a license

SAMHSA's searchable directory is FindTreatment.gov. The locator guide explains what a listing means: facilities a state approved for inclusion, reporting their own services, with the warning that services change and should be verified when you call. NIAAA adds a second caution. Licenses and accreditations lapse, which is why a directory has to be refreshed and why a government agency does not keep a permanent curated list of best programs. A printout from the locator is a name to check. It is not the state license file.

Opioid treatment programs sit under extra federal rules. The methadone guide covers that narrower topic. A general accreditation search does not, by itself, answer whether a clinic is allowed to dispense methadone.

Every partner is verified with its state board and holds Joint Commission or CARF accreditation. That sentence covers partners in the referral network. It is not a lookup tool for every program in the country. The public check still belongs to you.

A short verification list

1. What is the legal name, the state license number, the issuing agency, and the renewal date?
2. Where on that agency's site, or by what phone number, can a member of the public confirm it?
3. Which organization accredited the program, which address does the review cover, and when does it expire?
4. Does the Joint Commission search, the CARF search, or the named body's directory show that same name and place?
5. Is a person's certification being offered as if it were the facility's accreditation?

Write down the name of the person who answered. A promise you cannot restate is not a record. Call or text (800) 653-9376 if you want help asking those questions of programs that take referrals.

Additional Resources

Sources cited on this page:

• NIAAA Alcohol Treatment Navigator: license, certification, and accreditation
• SAMHSA: Finding quality treatment
• The Joint Commission: Search for substance use disorder treatment providers
• CARF International: Find a provider
• CARF accreditation overview
• SAMHSA FindTreatment.gov
• 988 Suicide & Crisis Lifeline
• SmarterRecovery: How we vet programs

Common Questions