Presentation regarding Internet marketing ethics in the addiction treatment industry

1. Ethics In the Internet Age
Tips and Tools to Safeguard Your Program’s Reputation
Colorado Springs Symposium - Feb. 1, 2016

3. The Problem… and the Solution
• An Industry at the Crossroads
• Treatment Marketing Challenges
• Predatory Practices Online
• Code of Ethics
• Leadership & Accountability
• Next steps?

4. “…is filled with disturbing
accounts of seriously
addicted people getting very
limited care at exhaustive
costs and with uncertain
results - but in my
experience, they are
accurate accounts.”
A. Thomas McLellan, PhD
Treatment Research Institute

5. “…examines the untold billions that are being made of of families in
crisis. With little regulation or science, the treatment industry has
become a cash cow business that continues to grow while deaths pile
up.”

6. “Ethics at the Crossroads” – Addiction Professional
• Paying bounties for referrals.
• Buying and selling leads from funnel sites and call centers.
• Large gifts to interventionists with whom a program works.
• Call centers sharing patient info among treatment centers.
• Urinalysis “labscam” - over-testing and over-billing.

7. Marketplace Challenges
• Shifting payer mix – managed care, out of network, private pay
• Consolidation via mergers & acquisition
• Industry growth via start-ups, increased competition
• Uncertainty around ACA; residential as an “essential benefit.”
• Impact of social media – today’s visible and vocal consumer

8. “Black Hat” Internet Marketing
Black hat SEO refers to the use of aggressive SEO
strategies, techniques and tactics that focus only on search
engines and not a human audience, and which usually do
not obey search engines guidelines.
Source: Webopedia.com

9. “Black Hat” Internet Marketing
 Phony street address so as to appear in a local search result
 Treatment programs posing as “rehab review” websites
 Utilizing or purchasing competitors brands in keyword searches
 Call aggregators posing as independent referral assistance
 Funnel sites – treatment companies posing as mission-driven
independent online directories

10. “Black Hat” Internet Marketing
 Keyword Stuffing:
Over-using keywords in a repetitive fashion to trick search engine
spiders into thinking the content is highly relevant. Sentences such as
“treating addiction from our rehab addiction treatment center offering
drug and alcohol rehab addiction treatment for those seeking treatment
from their addiction.”
Gibberish to humans and clearly meant for indexing spiders.

11. “Black Hat” Internet Marketing
 Hidden text:
Tiny text on a page that can’t be read by humans. Or using the same or
similar color text as the background. Often times, this hidden text is
inconsistent with the real text as it is intended to trick search engines.
 Redirects & Cloaking:
It is possible to submit page content to search engines that feed the
directory but when a user clicks on the search result, they immediately get
redirected to a different page that is not as relevant. There are legitimate
uses of redirects when an old URL is taken down and you want to redirect
users to a new URL with the same or similar content.

12. “Black Hat” Internet Marketing
 Gateway pages/sites:
Real secondary sites with real content are totally fine. But some SEO
practitioners use duplicate content, plagiarized content or search engine
driven text purely for the purpose of creating a backlink to the main site.
It is fine to carve out a segment of your business to create a dedicated
site and the ethical test of whether a customer feels the site is valuable
and if there is openness about the relationship.

13. “Black Hat” Internet Marketing
 Backlink Spam:
Adding backlinks to your site with little regard for quality and relevance.
True and legitimate backlinks are probably the most critical variable in a
solid page rank. Many practitioners blast your site to get massive amounts
of backlinks in a quick fashion. There are even scripts that can do this for
very low cost. They exploit forums and blogs that allow for unregistered
feedback and incorporate irrelevant commentary with a link back to your
site. Search engines crack down on known backlink farms but new ones
keep cropping up.

14. “Black Hat” Internet Marketing – Why So Prevalent?
 A battle between search engines and those trying to game the system.
 Technical tactics that most business don’t understand.
 A complete lack of transparency.
 Lack of regulation and jurisdiction.
 Some service providers based overseas.
 Easy to set up shop.
 Just get a gmail account and Paypal account and your in business.
 Black hat techniques can be incredibly effective in the short term
resulting in tremendous temptation.

15. The good news - a simple approach to SEO.
 Simply create relevant content for site visitors.
 Don’t write for search engines.
 Write for YOUR customers.
 Your content will “organically” be relevant to customers.
 Ranking results will take longer to improve … but they will be
legitimate results without risk of being penalized by search engines.
 While this sounds simple, many businesses don’t have the
resources, expertise or get lost on where to start.

38. drugrehab.net

55. NAATP Code of Ethics
Marketing
No financial rewards or substantive gifts are offered for patient
referrals.
 In no case should treatment providers make payment or
compensation to individuals or organizations in exchange for
patient referrals – neither in the form of direct payment,
consulting contracts, large gifts, nor other forms of
remuneration or compensation.

56. NAATP Code of Ethics
Marketing
Treatment providers will not engage in deceptive or misleading
advertising +/ or unduly predatory marketing.
 Member organizations will provide information about the
general location of their facility or facilities; the credentials of
their staff; and the length of stay in their programs.
 Member organizations will NOT engage in patient brokering,
make false claims, nor deliberately mislead consumers.

57. NAATP Code of Ethics
Marketing
Member organizations will not exploit their clients’ rights to
privacy for the purpose of promoting their programs.
 Patients’ identities may not be revealed by a treatment
provider – neither in the form of photographic images, video
images, media coverage, nor in marketing testimonials – at
any time during the client’s engagement in treatment.

58. NAATP Code of Ethics
Guiding Principals
• A “common sense” document that is evolving and dynamic
• The ethics conversation as a process, not an event.
• Create a forum for discussion and debate – i.e. leadership
versus enforcement?
• Membership organization versus an accrediting agency

59. NAATP Code of Ethics
Complaints & Enforcement
 There is a comprehensive policy and procedure which has
been forwarded to the NAATP Board for consideration at our
quarterly meeting next month.
 Complainant encouraged to resolve any complaint with the
NAATP member directly using all available channels before
contacting NAATP.
 NAATP does not have licensing, certifying, accrediting, or
policing authority; NAATP complaint remedies limited to
NAATP membership.

60. NAATP Code of Ethics
Complaints & Enforcement
The process includes transparent and proactive
communication among all parties, includes a 30
day response period, and a variety of sanctions
including:
 Send a written warning letter to the member organization
 Require the member organization to develop and implement
a corrective action plan
 Suspension of membership
 Termination of membership

62. What We’re About…
“ATMO was formed in response to
intensifying concerns among addiction
professionals that unethical marketing
practices are increasingly threatening to
misinform prospective clients and damage
the credibility of the addiction treatment
field.”
www.recoverymarketers.com

65. 1. Jaywalker does not engage in any form of misleading or deceptive
practices in its online marketing, public relations, advertising, or collateral
promotional materials. Further, we will not participate as an advertiser on
“funnel” websites, bogus treatment directory sites, or so-called “rehab reviews”
which misrepresent their objectivity to users or readers.

66. 4. We do not admit clients who are not clinically appropriate for our milieu. We
recognize the limitations of our model of care and we consistently refer clients
and families who are not appropriate to other programs.

67. 9. At Jaywalker, marketing is fundamentally about providing exposure for our
programs and services to families, professionals, and prospective clients. We strive
to accurately convey the day-to-day activities of our treatment center. We do not
contrive our brand, we reveal our community.

70. Jan. 25, 2015
“I have noted your interest in the ethics of addiction
treatment. I applaud your concern. Our industry,
which should be a shining example of compassion,
is too often exhibiting less admirable qualities.
I have attached a short review of the ethical
problems I often see. Hopefully our collective
voices will make a difference.”
Michael Campbell, MS, APR
Co-Founder & President
St. Joseph Institute for Addiction

72. FRN Marketing Ethics
1. All websites are clearly marked as Foundations Recovery Network (FRN) in
the “About” or “Contact” section and privacy policy.
2. Directory sites we own are created with information available in the public
domain. We will quickly remove a company or link at the owner’s request. We
will consider requests to add additional companies or listings.
3. If someone mistakenly calls our admissions center, we will gladly try to
connect them with the center he or she intended to call.

73. 6. We do not create false reviews or pretend to be alumni or staff of other
treatment centers on forums or message boards. We value legitimate reviews
of ours and other services.
7. We do not work with companies or centers that we find violate our code of
ethics. We work with companies who abide by our standards and ethical
values.
8. We do not bid in paid search for competitor trademarked names. We only
bid for our own names.
FRN Marketing Ethics
4. We do not post negative comments or messages about our competitors on
social media, review sites, web directories, business directories or local
search sites. We emphasize positive communication via all of our social media
properties.
5. We do not engage in malicious link-building. We focus on quality links.

74. 11. We do not create fictitious physical locations on online maps to have
more favorable local rankings in search. We only create locations online
for our properties in their specific physical geographic locations.
12. We do not infringe on copyrighted materials, including videos and
photos. We pay for the rights to any images or video we use.
13. We do not share personal contact information without permission. We
seek permission to share personal contact information.
FRN Marketing Ethics
9. We do not steal content from other sources. We work to produce original,
informative content.
10. We do not make fraudulent clicks on competitors’ paid search or display
ads. We focus our efforts on getting legitimate clicks on our own ads.

76. “It purposely confuses consumers into believing they are reaching one facility
when they are actually contacting another.”

79. Ethics – Next Steps…
• Stand for your Brand – ID and Notify
• Check yourself – Talk ethics w your SEO & PPC vendor
• Post your ethics on your website – [CARF/JCAHO/NAATP]
• Attend NAATP Ethics Panel at Annual Conference in May, 2016
Presentation available - bferguson@jaywalkerlodge.com

80. Ethics In the Internet Age
Tips and Tools to Safeguard Your Program’s Reputation
Colorado Springs Symposium - Feb. 1, 2016