Provider Listing Terms

These Provider Listing Terms apply to addiction treatment programs, recovery residences and related providers (“providers”, “you”) that HEAL considers for, or lists in, the vetted directory at /vetted-centers. They sit alongside our Terms of Use, which apply to anyone using HEAL. If the two conflict on a provider matter, these terms control.

By taking part in a review, supplying evidence, or accepting a listing, you agree to these terms. Anyone acting for a provider confirms they are authorized to do so.

HEAL’s directory exists because most treatment directories are paid advertising. To keep ours trustworthy, these rules have no exceptions:

• No fees. HEAL charges nothing to be reviewed, listed, rechecked or kept listed. There is no payment field anywhere in our review system.
• No pay-to-play. No one — a provider, a partner, a donor or anyone connected to HEAL — can buy a listing, a review outcome, faster review, a better position or a removal of someone else.
• No referral or per-admission payments. HEAL does not accept, and you must not offer, anything of value per admission, per inquiry, per referred patient or tied to the number of people who contact you through HEAL, directly or through anyone else.
• No sponsorship inside member spaces. We do not accept paid placement in meetings, the workbook, the help board or crisis resources.

These rules also reflect the law. The federal Eliminating Kickbacks in Recovery Act (EKRA, 18 U.S.C. § 220) makes it a crime to pay or receive remuneration for referrals to recovery homes, clinical treatment facilities and laboratories, and many states have patient-brokering laws that prohibit similar conduct. Offering HEAL, a HEAL volunteer or a HEAL member anything of value in exchange for referrals is a serious breach of these terms, will end any review or listing, and may be reported to the appropriate authorities.

Gifts, meals, travel or donations offered to reviewers or committee members in connection with a review must be declined. If you want to support HEAL’s mission, tell us at providers@teleheal.com; any support is handled separately from review and can never affect it.

Providers can’t apply their way onto the list. HEAL chooses which programs to review, usually because members or people we trust have firsthand experience of them. You are welcome to tell us about your program at providers@teleheal.com — there is no fee and no form to buy — but telling us does not guarantee a review, and we don’t have to explain a decision not to start one.

The directory is deliberately short. Not being listed says nothing negative about a program.

Every review uses the same published standard, set out at Our standard. A program must meet every requirement to be approved:

Each public listing shows which requirements were met at its last review, the date of that review and when the next one is due. We may refine the standard over time; changes are published on the standard page first and apply from the next review of each program.

To check the standard we may ask for, and you agree to provide truthfully and promptly:

• current state licenses and certifications, and any accreditation (for example, The Joint Commission or CARF);
• ownership, management and regulatory status, including parent companies and anyone with a significant financial interest;
• staffing information showing qualified clinical staff, and how admissions and counselor roles are described to the public;
• your withdrawal-management policy, naloxone availability on site and in discharge planning, and your patient grievance process;
• evidence of consent-compliant alumni follow-up at days 3, 30 and 90 — summary or de-identified information only, never patient records;
• commercial relationships, marketing arrangements and referral relationships that should be disclosed on a listing;
• access for an in-person site walkthrough.

We may also invite independent feedback from former patients and verify information with licensing boards, accreditors and public records. Submitting false, misleading or altered evidence ends the review and any listing.

Approval is a committee decision, and the rule is built into HEAL’s software so it can’t be skipped. A program can be approved only when:

1. every one of the 13 checklist requirements is recorded as met;
2. at least two committee members without a conflict of interest vote to approve;
3. at least one of those approve votes comes from an independent reviewer; and
4. approve votes outnumber decline votes.

Each reviewer records a short written rationale with their vote. The final decision is recorded with a public rationale that appears on the listing. A decision to decline or suspend can only be made by a HEAL administrator, as part of a path that includes legal review. Every step — status changes, checklist items, evidence added, votes and decisions — is written to a permanent record and to HEAL’s staff audit log.

A reviewer has a conflict if they, or someone close to them, work for, own part of, receive money from, compete directly with, or have a personal dispute with the program under review, or if anything else would make a fair-minded person doubt their independence.

Reviewers must disclose conflicts when voting. A conflicted vote is recorded for transparency but is not counted toward the decision. We expect conflicted reviewers to step back from the discussion as well. If you believe a reviewer has an undisclosed conflict, tell us at providers@teleheal.com and we will look into it before any decision is final.

Every program has one status at a time. HEAL’s software only allows the moves shown below, and only approved listings are ever shown publicly.

• Candidate: We know about the program and may review it. Nothing is public. Can move to: evidence collection, declined.
• Evidence collection: We are gathering documents, firsthand accounts and the site walkthrough. Can move to: under committee review, declined, candidate.
• Under committee review: The checklist is being completed and the review committee votes. Can move to: approved, declined, evidence collection.
• Approved: The listing is public on the vetted directory until its next review is due. Can move to: suspended, expired, under committee review.
• Declined: The program did not meet the standard at this review. Nothing is published about it. Can move to: candidate.
• Suspended: The listing is hidden while a concern is looked into. Can move to: under committee review, declined.
• Expired: The annual recheck was not completed in time, so the listing is hidden until it is re-reviewed. Can move to: under committee review.

Approval only happens through the committee decision described above — never by simply changing a status. A declined program may be reconsidered later as a new candidate, and a suspended or expired listing returns to committee review before it can be public again.

An approval lasts 365 days (about 12 months) from the committee decision. We aim to start each recheck well before it is due. HEAL’s systems check regularly for approved listings whose recheck date has passed and automatically move them to expired, which removes them from the public directory until a fresh review is completed. You agree to cooperate with rechecks in the same way as the first review.

We may also start a review at any time, and will do so after a material change such as a change of ownership, medical director, licensure or accreditation status.

While you are listed you agree to:

• Keep it accurate. Make sure everything on your listing is true and current, and send corrections to providers@teleheal.com.
• Tell us about changes. Notify us within 30 days of any change in ownership, medical director, licensure, accreditation, services offered or location, and promptly — within 5 business days — of any license suspension, revocation, probation, consent order, loss of accreditation, or government enforcement action related to patient care, billing or marketing.
• Stay licensed. Hold every license, certification and registration your services legally require.
• Market honestly. Follow the FTC Act and state consumer-protection and advertising laws; do not use misleading call centers, unmarked lead-generation sites, deceptive search ads or staff who misstate their qualifications.
• Not solicit members. Never use HEAL — including meetings, the help board, profiles or messages — to recruit, contact or advertise to members, and never ask staff or volunteers to steer anyone to you. Our Community Guidelines prohibit treatment-center solicitation by anyone.
• Keep the disclosures current. Tell us about new commercial, ownership or referral relationships that should appear on your listing.

An approved provider may say, accurately, that it is listed in HEAL’s vetted directory and link to its listing. Any use of the HEAL name, logo or a “Reviewed by HEAL” mark or badge must follow these rules:

• use it only while your listing is approved, and remove it within 7 days of suspension, expiry or removal;
• link it to your live listing on teleheal.com so people can see the review date and the standard;
• don’t say or imply that HEAL endorses, recommends, refers to, accredits, partners with or guarantees outcomes from your program, or that HEAL is a licensing or accrediting body;
• don’t alter the mark, combine it with other marks, or use it in paid ads, on lead-generation sites or in materials directed at HEAL members;
• follow any brand guidelines we publish, and stop on request.

We may make a downloadable badge available in future; until we do, use plain text and a link. Misusing the HEAL name is a breach of these terms and may also infringe our rights.

Members and others can tell us about concerns with a listed provider at providers@teleheal.com, or safety@teleheal.com for anything about someone’s safety. We take every concern seriously, but we verify before we act: we never publish accusations generated from member reports.

If a concern could affect your listing, we will normally tell you what it is about (without identifying the person who raised it unless they agree) and give you a fair chance to respond before we decide anything. Where a concern involves possible abuse, neglect, fraud or an immediate risk to patients, we may report it to the relevant licensing board, regulator or law enforcement, and we may suspend first and ask questions after.

A HEAL administrator may suspend a listing (hiding it from the public directory) or decline it when, for example:

• a requirement of the standard is no longer met, or a license or accreditation lapses;
• you breach these terms, including the independence and no-solicitation rules;
• we receive credible information suggesting a risk to patients, or deceptive marketing or billing;
• you don’t cooperate with a recheck or respond to a reasonable request for information.

Suspension and decline follow a path that includes legal review. Any negative finding is verified before it is published, and we only publish what is necessary to keep the directory accurate. You can ask us to remove your listing at any time by writing to providers@teleheal.com; we will take it down promptly.

If your program is declined or suspended, you may ask us to reconsider within 30 days by writing to providers@teleheal.com with your reasons and any new evidence. We aim to acknowledge your request within 10 business days. Where we agree there is new or overlooked information, the program returns to committee review, and reviewers who took part in the original decision may be replaced where practical.

A declined program can also be considered again later as a new candidate once circumstances have changed. Reconsideration is free, like everything else in this process.

Evidence files you give us are stored in a private storage bucket, separate from anything public. Only authorized HEAL reviewers can open them, each download uses a short-lived link, and every download is recorded in our staff audit log. Committee votes, reviewer notes and evidence are never published.

What appears publicly is limited to your listing details (name, location, services, website, phone, summary, licenses and accreditations, ownership, disclosures), which standard requirements were met, review dates and the committee’s public rationale. We will not publish documents you gave us in confidence without your agreement, unless the law requires it.

We may need to disclose information if legally compelled; see our Government & Law Enforcement Requests page for how we handle that.

During a review we may handle personal information about your staff and contacts — names, roles, credentials and business contact details. We use it only to run the review, maintain the listing and contact you, and we handle it as described in our Privacy Policy. HEAL never sells it. Our service providers are listed on the sub-processors page.

You confirm you have the right to share any personal information you send us and have told the people concerned where needed. Questions or requests about this data go to privacy@teleheal.com.

Member data flows only one way: HEAL never shares member data, meeting attendance, help requests or workbook content with providers — listed or not.

While the directory is being built, some listings may be samples used to demonstrate how the directory works. Each sample is clearly labeled, is excluded from search-engine indexing, and does not represent an approved provider. Sample listings describe fictional programs; if a sample ever resembles your real program, tell us at providers@teleheal.com and we will change it.

A listing means that, at its last review, a program met HEAL’s published standard based on the information available to us. It is not an endorsement, recommendation, referral, accreditation, license, guarantee of quality or prediction of anyone’s outcome. HEAL does not provide treatment, does not supervise providers, and is not responsible for the care they give. People should choose care with their own clinicians and confirm details directly with the provider.

See our Health & Emergency Disclaimer for more on the limits of HEAL’s role.

You are responsible for the services you provide, your marketing and the accuracy of the information you give us. You agree to indemnify HEAL against third-party claims arising from false information you supplied, your breach of these terms, or the care you provide, except to the extent caused by HEAL’s own wrongdoing.

We may update these terms. We will tell listed providers about material changes by email at least 30 days before they apply, except where a change is needed sooner for legal or safety reasons. Either side may end a listing at any time. The sections on independence, confidentiality, data, liability and indemnity survive the end of a listing.

Disputes about these terms will be handled first by talking: write to providers@teleheal.com and we will try in good faith to resolve things within 60 days. Governing law, venue and any formal dispute-resolution process are pending review by counsel and will be set out here before launch.

Questions about the standard, a review, a correction or these terms: providers@teleheal.com. Concerns about patient safety: safety@teleheal.com. Privacy requests: privacy@teleheal.com.