Benchmark Transitions

Redlands California
Yucaipa, California
Oak Glen, Yucaipa, California

Introduction and Overview: In our business the word “unique” gets over used and cheapened.  But we want to use the superlative of “unique” to describe Benchmark. When Benchmark was founded in the early 1990s, it quickly became our “goto” place for young adults who simply did not readily fit into any of the other young adult programs we knew well.  In 2017, times have changed and Benchmark has changed with the times without ever being distracted by the latest fad. Benchmark has become a young adult program with its own full continuum of care from very highest levels of structure and care to very relaxed community support.

Programming of this kind that lends itself to insurance reimbursement or public funding is generally trapped in structures dictated by those funding sources. Programming that lends itself to the flexibility that families  expect when paying out of pocket tends not to be reimbursable by these sources. Benchmark has adapted to an approach that works well for both clients reliant on insurance and those who either lack insurance or do not want to be restricted by insurance, and an infinite number of situations in between.

We encourage you, our readers, if you are even remotely interested in Benchmark, to read the entirety of this review, despite its length.   Perhaps even better would be to read this page through without checking links along the way. That will give you the "big picture." Then come back and follow at least those links that add depth to each bullet point. For those who want to be selective on where to focus, we offer the following so you can more readily locate what is of greatest interest to you. "Benchmark Today" marks the beginning of our actual observations of Benchmark as it is today. However understanding of the history given prior to that will help you to understand why this program stands out to us compared to others.  On many of the bullets that follow, you can go into more detail by clicking on the links at the end of each bullet that were placed there for that purpose.

Contents:

We encourage readers to read this page through from top to bottom. Then to obtain more detail, please go back and re-read, following any links that may appear.

  • More Historic Overview:  The heart of Benchmark is one of the oldest, and we think one of the finest, young adult transition programs available.  With recent expansion, Benchmark has become much more than just a transition program. It has become a full continuum of care. Its owner and founder, Jayne Longnecker Harper, is in our opinion one of the most skilled professionals we know of in addressing the needs of this population and their families -- probably the most skilled. Over the quarter century we have interacted with Jayne we have observed other programs come and go with this population. Benchmark has remained stable.
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      • Beginnings  Historically, Benchmark has been focused on transition services for young adults. It has always had a great skill working with clients with substance abuse and addiction problems, but has never been exclusively for that population. Additionally, Benchmark did not claim to provide primary treatment for addictions until Wildwood Canyon and Panorama Ridge opened more than twenty years later. Although they would consider each candidate for admission individually, they avoided new admissions of people whose addiction appeared to be at a level that would not be manageable in the structure of the Benchmark program. They did assist those people in accessing primary treatment intending to accept those same people after completing primary treatment. In so doing, they recommended primary treatment venues they knew would prepare a client to be able to take advantage of what Benchmark had to offer.
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      • Service Expansion With the most recent changes, Benchmark has expanded to provide a much more comprehensive continuum of care for the kinds of clients who have long been among those they serve best, but previously could serve their needs only in a part of their progression through services. Now they work provide service from entry point of getting help through final transition to independence. Simultaneously, Benchmark has taken bold and decisive steps to help families defray some of the cost of their services by today making maximum effort to access insurance benefits, something that did not work well with Benchmark in the past. Even now (October 2107) a person taking advantage of all of Benchmark's services will likely not find all of them covered by insurance, notwithstanding the great effort Benchmark has made to maximize insurance payment. If this may be problem for you, and if you think Benchmark might serve your needs well, we suggest you discuss your specific situation with Benchmark Admissions. See what they will do for you.
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    • Benchmark Today is a product of its history, clinical advances of recent years, and realistic response to the financial issues of the twenty first century. What follows is an attempt to explain our understanding of how this program keeps the quality commitments of its history in place while adjusting to the financial realities of today's healthcare insurance, attempting to reduce costs as much as possible and ensure that what people were paying for insurance coverage was not being wasted.
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      • Primary Treatment  Until the 2010 decade, Benchmark could not accept people with active substance abuse problems, although one of their strengths was their work with people with a history of substance abuse. They frequently referred people to detoxification services and/ or other primary treatment venues in anticipation of the person referred enrolling at Benchmark once the person was able to move to Benchmark and once they could be admitted drug and alcohol free. Now they offer Primary Treatment at their residential treatment facilities in Yucaipa, about ten miles east of its traditional location in Redlands. These are Wildwood Canyon (males) and Panorama Ridge (females).  Services at those locations are billable to insurance as residential treatment, although your insurance plan may or may not cover them and may or may not agree to medical necessity in your case.
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      • Extended Care  (nee first stage of transitional programming) The confusion over terminology at Benchmark is probably at its greatest as we distinguish "Extended Care" and "Transition." Prior to the need to conform to insurance definitions of billable services, what Benchmark now calls "Extended Care" and "Transition" blended into each other. Currently, Benchmark focuses three insurance billable  clinical services [partial hospitalization (PH), Intensive Outpatient (IOP), and Outpatient (OP)] into approximately the first three  months of what had been the core program at Benchmark and the program for which they took the name "Benchmark Transitions." Typically each level of service is offered for about one month. Insurance coverage of these services is coverage as outpatient services. Therefore insurance is not likely to cover living accommodations provided by Benchmark. (except in Primary Treatment)
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        • Living Accommodations.  The apartments provided accommodate all Extended Care and Transitional clients, and also Independent Living clients who do not elect to obtain their own housing off campus or are waiting for something to become available. Benchmark has two separate gender specific apartment groups for this purpose. They are fully staffed at any time students residents are present, including awake staff overnight. Staff have right of entry into the apartments. Apartments may have up to three bedrooms and house up to six residents. The agenda in the apartments is not just providing a place to live but also educating residents regarding how to live cooperatively with others.
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        • Partial Hospitalization (PH) involves 6 to 8 hours of clinical services 5 to 7 days per week. This time is entirely taken up with work under the clinical rubric required for insurance coverage at this most intensive level of outpatient clinical service.  This clinical service may be offered as either a substance abuse/ addiction service or a general mental health service.
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        • Intensive Outpatient (IOP) 3 to 5 hours per day 3 to 5 days per week.  When IOP replaces PH, Benchmark's traditional life skills programming comes into play. IOP, like PH, can be either substance abuse or general mental health.These Life skills services are not usually insurance billable.  These include (but are not limited to) education, study skills, job readiness, money management, etc.  Note that for participants in the substance abuse track IOP is largely the same Matrix Model IOP that Benchmark has provided for several years but was not previously credentialed to make it eligible for insurance billing.
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        • Outpatient (OP) 1 to 2 hours per day 2 to 3 days per week of therapeutic services. Benchmark's traditional life skills programming, not insurance billable, fills in remaining time. Outpatient services will still be accessible after this point in the program. Some insurance providers will be reluctant to pay for continued service of this kind. You don't know until you try. We are not saying there is no possibility of insurance payment for psychotherapy beyond this point. We are saying that Benchmark does not routinely insist upon continued psychotherapy past this point in the program (although they might do so in some cases) and that some insurance providers may be harder to convince of "Medical Necessity" after the services that have been provided at this point.
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      • Transitional Living  This is the historic offering of Benchmark on which its great reputation is based. Guidance through the Transitional Living or Transitional Care process is under the direction of life coaches who may or may not be qualified to be therapists, but their role is different even if they are fully qualified to function as therapists. It is more of a teaching and mentoring role to equip residents to have the life skills to live independently and productively. It is also a setting where young adults can practice the use of what they have gained in therapy as they apply those gains to real life experiences. Participants in this phase receive non-clinical services described below and continue to live in Benchmark's apartments.
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        • Non-Clinical Services As Benchmark has changed over the years, the practical, down to earth services that do not currently fit what insurance companies and some others think of as clinical, have remained an ever present constant. (We disagree with the insurance companies on this and assume Benchmark does to0, because these "non-clinical" services appear to us to improve outcomes from the clinical services dramatically)  See our page on insurance coverage, especially "Services Covered" and "Authorized Lengths of Stay."  Many young adult programs offer very respectable services in education, job readiness, work support, managing a household, etc. to a degree of quality which allows us to refer to those programs. However we have consistently experienced our highest level of confidence in Benchmark's ability to address the widest variety of needs of this kind, especially when surprises occur.
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      • Independent Living  This phase of a young adult's time at Benchmark is strictly adapted to the desires and needs of each young adult who participates in this phase.  At this point, the participant arranges for services as desired and needed. Many Benchmark's graduates move on to a university or a job in another city or on to the next phase of life and never become part of Independent Living. Sometimes that is consistent with Benchmark's recommendation and sometimes not. Those who do might continue to live in Benchmark's apartments or in their own place in the surrounding cities and towns.Frequently, participants continue to live in Benchmark apartments until they find their own place to live nearby.  Generally, Benchmark will continue to offer supportive services for as long as desired or needed.
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      • Rates/ Costs/  Payment  (This bullet and the next two are based on our current understanding, October 2017. Do not act on this without verifying with Benchmark Admissions) Although we are obviously very positive about the changes Benchmark has made so that Benchmark families can get financial help from their insurance, we urge caution when the ONLY financial resources are insurance or other resources are quite limited. If you are in this situation and interested in Benchmark talk to Benchmark Admissions. They can help you to work with your insurance company to get as much information as possible about what help your can expect from them, as well as helping to maximize financial assistance from all sources. We believe that Benchmark is best for young adults who can follow up the extended care phase with services that are not usually paid for by insurance.
        • Maximizing Insurance payment  What we write in this bullet is accurate to the best of our ability in October 2017,  but the legislation about health insurance and the attitudes about mental health coverage are both currently "moving targets." What we write today -- accurately for today -- may be entirely different tomorrow.  With the expenditure you could be facing, it is probably wise to invest in a consultation with an attorney with experience in making insurance companies pay coverage they do not want to pay before you do anything else.
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        • Self Pay Approach If you are in a position to pay for the services at issue but would benefit greatly from help with the costs, and what Benchmark offers appears to fit your need, we encourage you to contact Benchmark. tell them you are prepared to cover necessary costs within reason and would like to access insurance as much as possible. Let them know you are willing to use legal counsel to pressure insurance if necessary. They will be helpful, although you might still do better with a lawyer stepping in even before that call.  But make sure Benchmark knows you will pay for what insurance does not. This way, Benchmark will know your family is prepared to go through the   program seamlessly. Of course, this kind of experience is never without some unexpected problems. Benchmark will guide you through them.
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      • We disagree with some of our colleagues on a few points. We are aware of some parents and some professionals backing away from Benchmark because of a perception that it is too structured and/ or operating for a lower functioning population.  We agree that SOME young adults will benefit from a less structured setting. We also agree that Benchmark, during the "Extended Care" phase is more structured than the entry point in many other young adult programs.  Our experience suggests that parents understandably have difficulty absorbing the degree to which their adult son or daughter has gotten into a dangerous situation. We see many more examples of a family underestimating a son or daughter's level of need than overestimating it -- except when decisions are made in a moment of anger.  A moment of anger is never a good time to make a major decision.
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      • The Dr. Phil Matter.  We have agreed to disagree with the Benchmark people, who have made references to Dr. Phil on their website. Among the references is "A PROUD PARTNER OF DR. PHIL'S PATH TO RECOVERY" at the top of every page of Benchmark's website.  We see Dr. Phil as an accomplished reality TV star, who knows how to make a lot of money off his celebrity.  Nothing wrong with that. We have not assessed the "Virtual Reality" program Dr. Phil uses. We would trust Jayne Longnecker Harper, Benchmark's founder, over Dr. Phil any day if they were to disagree over recovery issues.  We have not been impressed by other programs use Dr. Phil's name in their marketing.  We see this as perhaps harmless, but it does not add value in our perception.
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    • Summary  The strength and success of Benchmark has always been about the creativity of the staff team that adapts to every client as a new challenge and, to some degree, a new approach. To be fair about, this is one place where we experience some difference between Jayne and the younger generation. As the younger generation becomes more influential, we see less inclination to commit to young adults who simply may not fit into the existing group. But for those they do admit we see the same dedication to apply whatever creativity that might be necessary to achieve success. Those that are not admitted because of this are assisted in finding a more appropriate venue, keeping in mind that currently (written in October 2017) more variety of young adult programming is available.
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    We have the greatest confidence that Benchmark will continue to define excellence in young adult programming.

    A Rating

    Please read our full disclaimer. You are responsible for verifying our information before acting on it.   

    Introduction to FamilyLight Review of Benchmark Transitions         

    Return to Individual Schools and Programs

    Return to Young Adult Transition/ Failure to Launch Programs Most in Play

    Summer 2016 Benchmark Announcement of New Services

    Return to Index Letter B

    2009 review of Benchmark Transitions

    Website of Benchmark Transitions        

    Last updated November 5, 2017

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