BATTLE OF UPSTATE METHADONE CENTER HEADS TO COURT

Feuding Healthcare Providers Are Waging Legal Warfare Over Whether
Spartanburg Should Be Home To A Methadone Treatment Center For Heroin
Addicts And Other Opiate-based Drug Users

Feuding healthcare providers are waging legal warfare over whether
Spartanburg should be home to a methadone treatment center for heroin
addicts and other opiate-based drug users.

Simpsonville resident Brent Brady, who runs privately funded outpatient
narcotic treatment programs in Charlotte and Salisbury, N.C., received
approval from the state Department of Health and Environmental Control on
Dec. 13 to open Spartanburg Treatment Associates at 930 S. Pine St.

But just six days later, lawyers representing the operators of treatment
centers in Greenville and York counties blocked the opening of Brady's
facility by filing a request for a contested case hearing before the
Administrative Law Judge Division, an independent quasi-judicial agency
within the executive branch of the state government.

Now ALJD, which hears the contested cases of state agencies, is ready to
act on the case pitting Orlando, Fla.-based Colonial Management Group
against Spartanburg Treatment Associates and DHEC. ALJD has set aside three
days - July 16-18 - for Judge John D. Geathers to hear the case in Columbia.

At issue are the questions of whether there is a demonstrated need for a
methadone treatment facility in Spartanburg and whether Colonial
Management's facilities in Greenville and York counties would be harmed
financially by the competition.

Methadone, a legally prescribed synthetic drug, is used to treat people
addicted to opiates like heroin, morphine and prescription pain killers.
Colonial Management operates Greenville Metro Treatment Center and the York
County Treatment Center. Piedmont Treatment Center, which has no connection
to Colonial Management, operates in Greenville as well. All of the
facilities are privately run. South Carolina's only publicly-funded
methadone treatment center is located in Charleston.

Colonial Management's attorney, Matt Utecht of Greenville, argues that
state law offers protection from competition to healthcare providers who
are providing services in an area where there is a demonstrated need.

As of September 2001, Utecht said, 82 of Greenville Metro Treatment
Center's 239 patients, or 34 percent, were from Spartanburg and surrounding
areas.

"The law requires healthcare providers to apply to DHEC for Certificates of
Need to avoid unnecessary duplication of services that could result in
patients losing services," he said. "If a treatment center opens in
Spartanburg and the two existing facilities in Greenville lose a
significant number of their patients as a result, they're going to be
negatively impacted economically and will not have the financial ability to
maintain services for those patients who remain."

Utecht said the law is designed, among other things, to contain the costs
of services and to "protect healthcare providers who are serving the
legitimate needs of the community from going under."

"We're not selling widgets here; we're selling healthcare services," he
said. "While there is a place for competition in the marketplace, the
Legislature has recognized the need to protect healthcare providers."

Utecht also said Spartanburg Treatment Associates has failed to demonstrate
that Colonial Management's two facilities aren't sufficient to meet the
demand for services from those in Spartanburg who need them. But Brady,
whose proposed new facility beat out Piedmont Treatment Center to receive
DHEC's Certificate of Need, said many addicts in the Spartanburg area do
not seek methadone treatment at Greenville Metro or Piedmont Treatment
Center because they don't have time to drive to and from Greenville every
day or don't have transportation.

Many such individuals end up deciding it is easier to simply deal with
their drug habits than to seek transportation or make the bothersome trip,
Brady said.

"These people get no treatment whatsoever," he said. "But with a treatment
center in Spartanburg, people can get on the bus line. Treatment would be
accessible for them."

Brady cited reports that DHEC estimates nearly 600 persons are seeking
treatment at Greenville's two methadone treatment centers, and he estimated
there are many more in Spartanburg who need treatment but who don't seek it.

David Forrester, executive director of the Spartanburg County Alcohol and
Drug Abuse Commission, said he has heard reports that more than 100 people
here are making the daily drive to Greenville for methadone treatment.
Larry Worley, Piedmont Treatment Center director, has put the number at 125.

Brady finds vindication in those estimates.

"We're not state-funded, and we get no outside funding," he said. "Our
funding comes from patients' fees. If we don't have enough patients, we're
not going to stay open.

"So yeah, we think there's a definite need in Spartanburg County, or we
wouldn't be doing this."