AATA

first organization to take on the gargantuan taskof simplifying and clarifying legal and clinical standards tomake sure that patients and providers have the information theyneed-detailed,specific,on-the-spot information that no organization has been putting out until now.” In addition to the AATAwebsite,which Nelson calls a “treasure trove of online resources,” featuring webinars, state-by-state laws and regulations, links to insurance resources, industry news, and many other sites and services,AATA keeps its members informed by sending out regular emails and hold- ing its own live events, as well as participating in others.“We’re working with a number of national conferences and organizations to put out our mate- rial,” says Nelson.“For example, I spent three days in Florida, recently, at the AXIS (Addiction eXecutives Industry Summit) Conference put on by C4 Recovery and we did two days of teaching on a curriculum that we established for addiction treatment market- ing.” That marketing curriculum includes a 36-hour, on- line, e-learning course as part of the first-of-its-kind certification program for industry professionals who want to operate ethically and in compliance with marketing best practices,while successfully navigat- ing the complex and ever evolving regulatory and legal landscape.The Certificate in Addiction Treat- ment Marketing (C-ATM) is “the first time that any- one has tried to articulate what it means to market in an ethical way, and put together a comprehensive educational curriculum.And we’re getting a great reception to that,”Nelson states. While AATA’s main mission is education, it more recently began to take on more responsibilities in the realm of advocacy, as its own members, as well THE AMERICAN ADDICTION TREATMENT ASSOCIATION as other individuals and organizations in the ad- diction treatment community, clamored for more and more effective, advocacy in the halls of govern- ment.“Our concern is that a lot of the legislation that we’re seeing proposed inWashington D.C. and Sacramento, and Florida is draconian,”Nelson posits, “and not set up to support the healthy, sustainable growth of the industry.We’re trying to see that we get rational laws that protect good operators, pro- tect patients, but don’t make it impossible for the in- dustry to provide the care that’s needed. I personally drafted a bill that’s winding its way through Sacra- mento to take on bad practices in addiction treat- ment marketing, and our goal is to create livable standards that will help support the industry.” Nelson admits that the AATA is only one of a group of very passionate stakeholders, sometimes duking it out in the public sphere.“You have the patient care advocates; you have the treatment pro- vider community; but you also have the neighbor- hoods and the cities,”he explains.“The cities have a very specific interest.The National League of Cities, who we’ve been in dialogue with, really feels that the growth of sober living homes and treatment centers in residential neighborhoods has gone on too far, so they are fighting hard on that front.The health plans are fighting aggressively for laws that tamp down on reimbursement and to limit their ob- ligations. So, you have a lot of different stakeholders fighting.We don’t want to see draconian laws that paint everybody with one brush and don’t differen- tiate between good operators and operators who are engaged in fraud or abuse. It doesn’t help the situation. It just creates more confusion.”