PHP-level care for Miami — inpatient density, your home at night.

From Brickell, Coral Gables, or Aventura, RECO's Delray Beach campus sits about 65 minutes north on I-95. For Miami clients entering PHP, that geographic separation from familiar use environments is part of the clinical design. Most pair the 30-hour weekly schedule with our sober-living network so the overnight environment supports the daytime work, rather than commuting through Miami traffic each morning.

For someone in Brickell, Coral Gables, or Coconut Grove looking at partial hospitalization, the first practical question is usually the drive. RECO’s campus is in Delray Beach, roughly 50 miles up I-95 from downtown Miami and about an hour and five minutes in normal traffic. That distance matters clinically. Partial hospitalization runs Monday through Friday, often six to eight hours a day, and daily round-trips from Aventura or Pinecrest are workable but exhausting. Most Miami clients combine PHP with our on-site sober-living network, which puts the geographic distance from familiar use environments and social triggers to clinical use rather than treating it as an obstacle.

This page is meant to give you a clear picture of what PHP actually is, who it fits, what the evidence base looks like, and what a day in the program feels like. If you want to talk to an admissions clinician directly, that number is (866) 396-2008. There is no intake fee and verification of benefits is free.

What partial hospitalization actually provides

Partial hospitalization, sometimes called day treatment, is the most intensive level of outpatient care in the ASAM continuum. At RECO, PHP is 30 or more clinical hours per week, structured Monday through Friday in a coherent daily schedule rather than scattered appointments. The clinical density approximates inpatient treatment, including psychiatry, individual therapy, evidence-based group programming, family work, and case management, but clients return to a residential setting at night rather than sleeping on a hospital unit.

For appropriately selected clients, the published outcomes literature on PHP for substance use disorders is comparable to residential care. The qualifier matters. PHP works at residential-quality outcomes when ASAM Dimensions 4, 5, and 6, which cover readiness, relapse potential, and recovery environment, are well-managed, and when there is no acute medical or psychiatric instability under Dimensions 1 and 2 that would require 24-hour nursing. That clinical fit determination is what the intake assessment is for.

Medication is integrated when clinically indicated. For alcohol use disorder, that may mean naltrexone, acamprosate, or disulfiram. For opioid use disorder, buprenorphine or extended-release naltrexone (Vivitrol). Psychiatric medications are managed by our prescribers, not handed off to an outside provider the client has to find on their own.

Who steps down into PHP

There are three typical pathways into PHP. The most common is stepping down from residential treatment after the first three or four weeks. Residential gets someone physically stable and out of acute crisis; PHP is where the harder work of building skills and addressing underlying patterns generally happens. The clinical density carries over while the client begins to practice life in a less contained environment.

A second pathway is stepping up from intensive outpatient. Sometimes IOP’s nine to twelve hours a week is not delivering the clinical contact needed. A client may be relapsing, decompensating, or showing the kind of distress that needs more structure than IOP can hold. Stepping up to PHP is not a failure; it is a clinically appropriate response to data the lower level of care has produced.

The third group enters PHP directly from the community. This usually happens when the intake assessment indicates a client needs PHP-level density but does not require inpatient: medically stable, not actively psychotic, not in acute withdrawal that needs 24-hour monitoring, but with a substance use pattern severe enough that nine hours a week is unlikely to be sufficient. Many Miami professionals fall into this category and benefit from the structured separation from their day-to-day environment.

What the evidence base looks like

The clinical research on PHP for substance use disorders has been reasonably consistent: for appropriately selected patients, outcomes are comparable to inpatient or residential at materially lower cost and with less disruption to a client’s life. The key moderating variable in nearly every study is housing stability. When the overnight environment supports recovery, whether that is sober-living, a stable family home without active use, or a residential setting with structure, PHP delivers inpatient-equivalent results. When the overnight environment is itself a relapse driver, the structure of the day cannot compensate.

This is why RECO almost always pairs PHP with our sober-living network for clients coming from outside Palm Beach County, and especially for Miami clients. The clinical math is straightforward: 30 structured hours during the day against 138 unstructured hours per week is a recipe for relapse if those 138 hours are unsupervised in a high-trigger environment. Sober-living closes that gap.

The modalities used in group and individual work are the ones with the strongest evidence base for substance use disorders: cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT), dialectical behavior therapy (DBT) skills, motivational interviewing (MI), and, for clients with significant trauma histories, EMDR and Trauma-Focused CBT delivered by clinicians specifically trained in those approaches.

What a PHP day looks like at RECO

A typical PHP day starts mid-morning. Clients arrive on campus, check in, and begin with a process or psychoeducation group. Late morning is usually a skills-based group, often CBT for cravings, DBT distress tolerance, or relapse prevention planning. Lunch is taken together on campus; the meal itself is part of the clinical day, not a break from it.

Afternoons rotate between experiential modalities, including art therapy, yoga, and equine work for certain tracks, and more clinical process work. Individual therapy sessions are woven through the week, typically two to three per week depending on clinical need. Psychiatry appointments are scheduled into the day rather than requiring a separate trip to an outside provider. Family sessions happen on a schedule that works for the family system, often by secure video for Miami families when in-person isn’t practical.

The rhythm is deliberate. Clinical density is not just about hours on a schedule; it is about whether those hours are organized in a way that lets a client integrate what they are learning. A PHP day at RECO is built to feel like a coherent treatment day rather than a series of disconnected appointments.

How to start, insurance, and what comes after

Most major commercial carriers cover PHP at appropriate levels of medical necessity, including Aetna, Cigna, Blue Cross Blue Shield, United Healthcare, and Florida Blue. Benefits verification through our insurance page takes most families about a day. We do not accept Florida Medicaid for PHP at this time.

The typical course of PHP is four to six weeks, followed by a step-down to IOP, then outpatient and aftercare and alumni programming. For Miami clients with alcohol or opioid-specific concerns, our alcohol and opioid treatment pages go into more detail on the medication and protocol side. To start, call (866) 396-2008 and ask to speak with the admissions clinical team.

Serving residents of: Brickell, Coral Gables, Coconut Grove, Aventura, Pinecrest.