How Much Does Drug Rehab Cost in Thailand?

Thailand is one of the premier destination rehab countries in Southeast Asia or Asia in general as well as the world. This is because it offers affordable luxury rehab center services for inpatient and outpatient services that have amenities far beyond what you would find in your standard treatment centers locally. Many of these amenities are costly but you can get quality discounts and lower prices when you travel to Thailand for treatment instead of going to a local rehab facility in your area.

Furthermore, while it’s possible to have your insurance pay for your rehab services domestically, many individuals opt for the Thailand experience because of its many extra comforts at a cost-effective price. The Thailand rehab centers are known to have longer lasting treatment periods for less cash, more holistic treatments, and more pleasant and easier-to-commit-to regimens. With that said, just how affordable is Thailand drug rehabilitation?

Also, why is it that countries in North America, Europe, Asia, and Australia are all making a beeline to this particular Southeast Asian country?

Thailand’s Private Hospitals and Drug Rehab Centers

Thailand is a regular site for medical and rehab tourism thanks to its 1,000 or so hospitals, with 470 of them or nearly half of all of them private centers. The reason why it’s serves as the Southeast Asian Mecca for medical and rehab tourism is because of its highly developed medical industry. The Southeast Asian nation even has Asia’s biggest private hospital. Not Southeast Asia’s biggest private hospital, but Asia’s biggest private hospital, which means it’s even bigger than those found in Japan and China. The same hospital is also the first Asian hospital to get ISO 9001 and JCI accreditation to boot.

Meanwhile, 37 private hospitals in Thailand also have JCI accreditation. Thailand’s medical tourism industry is booming exactly because its private hospital sector is so highly developed that it can give U.S.A. medical centers and rehab facilities a run for their money. What’s more, Thai doctors mainly work in international or private hospitals because of these establishments’ associated financial incentives. For instance, a doctor can bear 70 percent more working in such hospitals than in public hospitals.

Thailand’s three leading hospitals are:

1. Bumrungrad International Hospital
2. Samitivej Hospital
3. Bangkok Hospital Group

These high-quality medical facilities are increasing in number within Thailand and renown all over the world because of the country’s booming medical, dental, surgical, and rehab tourism. It’s these places but wellness centers that are known for catering to tourists from all over the world, such that they usually receive mostly foreign patients more often than not. As such, the hospital industry of Thailand has been marketing itself towards these clients since the 21^st Century. In fact, about 30 to 50 percent of private hospital patients and rehab patients come from overseas.

Watch Keith, from Sydney, talk about rehab:

Cost and Payment for Thailand Drug Rehab Across the Board

On average, a 28 to 30 day inpatient drug addiction treatment in Thailand costs $10,000 give or take a thousand dollars. To put things into proper context, the price for recovery in a luxury inpatient rehab facility in the United States of America costs upwards of $80,000 a month. Meanwhile, a comparably high-end facility in Thailand only costs $14,000 per month or a mere fraction of the cost. You’ll get the same care, the same individualized or dual diagnosis treatment, and the same group or one-on-one psychiatric care but much cheaper in Thailand.

• Reason for the Reasonable Pricing: Thailand isn’t only in direct competition with your local rehab clinics that more often than not have the advantage of insurance coverage or government sponsorship. They’re also competing with fellow destination rehab clinics in places like the U.K., Switzerland, Portugal, and so forth. By keeping their standards high and their prices as low as possible, they can get a competitive edge on many foreign clients and their families.
• Quality of Treatment: The medical paradigm of high-quality yet affordable treatment ensures that Thailand isn’t just a second-rate or third-rate alternative to your local outpatient 12-step rehab clinic or residential luxury suite clinic. As discussed above, they have a highly developed medical industry with ISO 9000 and JCI accreditation. Their best doctors are also in those rehab centers because of how much more high-paying these private establishments are compared to public hospitals and government facilities.
• Length of Stay Determines Cost of the Treatment: To maximize your rehab investment in every way possible throughout your rehab tourism experience, your length of stay determines the cost of your treatment. Thailand is able to lower costs to ridiculous amounts by setting their monthly rates at values that actually encourage longer term stays and more successful recovery rates in light of the fact that patients aren’t forced to cut their stay short due to lack of funds.
• Inquiries for Price Quotes Are Easy to Do: Even when it comes to Thailand’s 5-star treatment facilities with international-grade treatment programs, it’s quite easy to inquire a quote on the price. You have tons of contact options and clinic rates to choose from. You just need to know where to look. They also don’t pull the wool over your eyes with hidden charges or extra fees for aftercare. More often than not, they even have promos for a complimentary month of extra treatment in case of relapse!
• It’s Like a Vacation and Treatment in One Package: This isn’t just a marketing byline. Many medical facilities for drug addiction rehab are going the luxury treatment approach rather than the antiquated mental hospital methodology of the 20^th Century and earlier because stress is the number one trigger for relapse. While you’re out there secluded from the enablers and bad environment that led you to becoming drug addicted, you will feel much more receptive to treatment with a large attentive staff and relaxing amenities.

The Different Costs of Treatment in Thailand Drug Rehab Centers

Here are a few examples of Thailand’s most popular addiction rehab centers and how much they charge for their services. This should give you a rough idea of the state of the Thai rehab industry and their rates for treatment.

• • Donation-Funded Rehab Monastery: Did you know you can go on a rehab trip to Thailand and receive treatment for nearly absolutely free? Just put in a donation and you’re good to go. This is certainly the case for several rehab monasteries in Thailand, particularly the ones near Thamkrabok or Saraburi Central. The “catch” with these treatment facilities and temples is the lack of a more complete treatment regimen that follows you all the way to recovery, including aftercare. Still, they’re perfect for those who are only looking for detoxification at a low cost.
  • This no-frills experience in rehabilitation includes a dormitory-type accommodation with cold showers at what’s known as the “Vomiting Temple”. These monasteries are historically significant because they provide the foundation of Thailand rehabilitation that eventually evolved into a million-dollar destination rehab industry enjoyed by tourists the world over. Many rehab centers fashion themselves after these places that were founded on Buddhist principles and a strict rehabilitation regime based on meditation that’s in stark contrast to the luxury services of modern-day rehab.
  • $1,300 Secondary Stage Community Rehab: You can also avail of rehab at certain foundations found near Chiang Rai that are suitable only for those who’ve already undergone primary detoxification at a separate medical facility and are now searching for a supporting and peaceful support environment that’s relatively low cost to boot. It’s a place that only costs $1,000 or so a month exactly because it’s where you’re supposed to continue your recovery instead of a full-package rehab complete with medical detoxification protocols and aftercare.
  • You can further reduce the cost by applying for scholarships on an individual basis for it. This type of rehab has only been around since the 2010s. It even cooperates with detoxification facilities and monasteries in Thamkrabok, such that only people who’ve detoxed in Thamkrabok can enter this rehab. However, throughout the years, it has developed into a mindfulness meditation center that caters to both anyone seeking respite from stress as well as recovering addicts that have already undergone detox.
  • $6,000 Low-Cost Small Facilities That Are Still Westernized: If $14,000 per month in rehab costs is too pricey for you, then there’s an alternative present. You can go to smaller clinics that have facilities that are more private and humble in order to pay for less than half of what you’d normally pay in really expensive rehabilitation centers. Their treatment regimen isn’t any more inferior compared to their larger counterparts, which includes the requisite mindfulness training with individual counseling, group counseling, and CBT or Cognitive Behavioral Therapy. There’s a catch for the cheapness though.
  • You have to wait a while to get rooms for these places. Certain centers only have 10 rooms included and they’re shared to boot. Their facilities and accommodations are affordable exactly because the whole clinic lacks real estate and can only deal with 10 patients at a time. The advantage here aside from cost-effectiveness is the fact that the staff, doctors, and psychologists can concentrate more on every individual. Booking in these 10-room or 10-bed facilities can be quite challenging due to demand for its $5,900 rate per month.
  • A Mid-Priced Substance Abuse Rehab Center for $7,000: There are alcohol and drug rehab centers available in Thailand that only cost $6,995 per month but you have to share a room with others for it. What’s more, there might be other costs involved depending on the accommodation style. You might be willing to spend more for a more private room in case you don’t want to share a bathroom with total strangers or you wish to be able to survive your addiction ordeals in your lonesome at a more private room. The good news is that those options are probably still cheaper than the $14,000 option.
  • Some of the oldest westernized rehab clinics in Thailand cost this much and they’ve been around since the beginning of the New Millennium or the 21^st Century. These rehab centers near or at Koh Chang and Chantaburi therefore have the advantage of experience and knowing how to best merge the traditional Buddhist rehab of Thailand with more evidence-based or westernized concepts of rehabilitation. They’re also big enough to house, for example, an 80-bed resort-style retreat home with options for single and shared rooms.
  • Another $7,000 Holistic Rehab with Family-Like Environment: There are rehab clinics available near coastal towns like Sriracha, which are only an hour’s drive away from the Bangkok International Airport. They cost about $6,900 a month. You can even avail of discounted rates for your second and third month of rehab. They’re characterized by their warm, familiar, and homey surroundings that bolster their reasonably priced holistic offerings. Such facilities are characterized by their emphasis on creativity, nutrition, mindfulness meditation, and Buddhist practices for rehabilitation.
  • They’re therefore appealing to the average traveler due to the exotic nature of their rehab that isn’t as clinical as the more medical and dry treatment they receive in local rehab facilities. The holistic treatment also promises evidence-based treatment that includes 12-steps therapy, mindfulness meditation, CBT, and an emphasis on getting fit. By exercising and filling in the void of drugs with the betterment of your body, you should be able to start a domino effect of self-improvement that culminates to sobriety.
  • $14,000 Luxury Rehab Experience: If you don’t want to undergo the monastery experience in places like the “Vomiting Temple” and wish to add more evidenced-based therapies and counseling to your mindfulness meditation sessions, then you can get the best of both worlds (traditional and modern rehab) at large, luxurious rehab centers and groups costing $14,000 per month. These places have all-inclusive treatment programs in a center that appears like a spa or a resort so that all your stress can melt away, making you more receptive to medical rehabilitation treatment.
  • For example, a certain rehab establishment founded by expatriate businessmen has grown from a 9-bed clinic to an 80-bed treatment facility with a number of locations all over Thailand. These rehabilitation sites offer a westernized clinical program that has merged with the traditional Buddhist monastery regimen of yore, such that rehab tourists can enjoy CBT, 12-step approaches, and mindfulness meditation therapy in these so-called recovery zones that use the luxury resort style of amenities. These sites are among the most expensive in Thailand because they’re the most complete and state-of-the-art facilities available.

Why You Should Go to Lanna Rehab in Chiang Mai

This article recommends that you avail of rehab at the Lanna Rehab Center in Chiang Mai because even though it’s not the cheapest or oldest rehabilitation center in Thailand, its quality cannot be denied. It’s worth every last penny or cent because it offers almost everything you’d expect from a $14,000 resort-style rehab center but at a low, low price of $10,000 for about one month. Its main claims to fame as a rehabilitation center is its more intimate environment reminiscent of the attention to patients offered by $6,000-a-month low-cost small facilities.

• The Best of All Worlds: However, it’s about $4,000 more expensive because its facilities don’t limit the doctors and therapists with their work because it offers pretty much the same yin-yang harmony of service found in the $14,000 luxury rehab center option. So it doesn’t only have the best of both worlds in eastern-and-western rehabilitation methodologies but also in terms of intimate and topnotch treatment facilities.
• Privacy and Seclusion: Lanna Rehab values seclusion and the privacy of its patients so that every doctor, nurse, attendant, psychiatrist, and counselor can focus their expertise on a handful of patients. You won’t feel lost in the shuffle while there. The staff and crew will always make sure you keep up with the schedule of treatments as you need them and as outlined by the individualized patient regimen.
• Customized Holistic Treatment Program: For $10,000 in 5 weeks of treatment you’ll be offered dual diagnosis treatment in case you’re dealing with a co-occurring disorder. You’ll also go through the requisite menu of CBT as well as Dialectal Behavioral Therapy or DBT (which is lacking in many of the above mentioned treatment services). The center comes complete with a team of psychiatrists in their main site as well. You have everything you need at Lanna from detox to aftercare.
• The Lanna Mission-Vision: Lanna Rehab’s mission-vision is to create a luxury rehab center that won’t feel like you’re paying an arm and a leg to be there. At the same time, they do everything in their power to make it feel less like a treatment center and more like a resort, as though you’re being treated for your addiction while you’re on vacation. The crew is attentive to your needs and every activity holistically improves every aspect of your health.
• Facility and Accommodations: The Lanna luxury rehab setting comes with 20 private en-suite rooms. It’s also based just outside of Chiang Mai in Northern Thailand. If you’re a destination rehab tourist, you won’t have to go the Bangkok Airport to get to Chiang Mai because it has its own airport for the convenience of all the visiting patients. Inquire immediately in order to get booked because demand is high for the establishment.

Thailand Rehab Costs in a Nutshell

Thailand has one of the most developed private hospital and rehab treatment centers in all of Asia or even arguably the world. Its combination of traditional Buddhist meditation philosophies with westernized mindfulness meditation as well as evidence-based therapies allow the country to compete quality-wise against rehabilitation powerhouses like the United States, the United Kingdom, Switzerland, and Portugal.

Most importantly, the costs of its eastern-western fusion rehab treatment will have many a patient’s head spin, going from as low as a donation to as high as $14,000 per month versus the U.S. standard of $80,000 per month. The amazing part is that these rehab centers and hospitals are internationally certified, so foreign patients and rehab tourists won’t have to worry about paying for quackery or ineffective therapy that mostly amount to placebo-based improvements at best.

Watch Anna from the South Coast of NSW talk about rehab:

Lanna Rehab Chiang Mai Offers Affordable Luxury in an Intimate Setting

Lanna Rehab is the most recent addition to Thailand’s rehab offerings since it went into operation back in 2016 with its wellness center full of 20+ private en-suite rooms. Its treatment programs are customized to the individual on a case-by-case basis, offering dual diagnosis for any co-occurring disorders. They also offer Dialectal Behavioral Therapy and Cognitive Behavioral Therapy. As opposed to only 28 days, this program is more affordable than many options and offers a stay of 5 weeks.

Visit the center right now and discover the reason why it’s a leading rehab center for drug and alcohol addiction. Contact them today for a No-Cost Assessment. Their toll-free hotline is available 24 hours a day and 7 days a week.