First Step Services

If you are looking at First Step Services in Raleigh, NC, the basics worth knowing up front: The facility's programming is outpatient (IOP, MAT), not residential. This page walks through the questions that tend to matter most to families weighing a specific program.

Care levels at First Step Services

The care-level question matters because what a facility offers is what it can realistically treat well. First Step Services is an outpatient-focused program (IOP, MAT) — patients live at home or in sober living and attend treatment sessions. This level of care is clinically appropriate for mild-to-moderate substance use disorder, or for patients stepping down from residential. Before admission, an independent clinical assessment (from a primary-care doctor, licensed substance-use counselor, or addiction-medicine physician) can confirm whether First Step Services's offerings match the clinical need.

Insurance and payment

First Step Services accepts both Medicaid and commercial insurance, which is the broadest payer profile and typically correlates with programs that operate at scale across the economic spectrum. The single most useful pre-admission move on insurance is requesting the facility send you — in writing, by email — the specific benefits verification for your specific plan product. That document is the answer to most post-admission billing disputes.

Specialty programming

The facility's documented specialty programming includes: Criminal justice (other than DUI/DWI)/Forensic clients. The specialty question rewards specific follow-up: what clinicians provide the specialty content, what their credentials are, what percentage of weekly programming is specialty-specific vs. general programming.

Before you call

Before admission to First Step Services, three questions consistently produce the most useful information: (1) which ASAM level of care are you treating me at, and what is the clinical rationale; (2) can you send me a written Verification of Benefits for my specific insurance plan; (3) what is your policy on medication-assisted treatment for opioid use disorder — specifically, do you continue patients on buprenorphine or methadone during residential programming. The facility's documented pharmacotherapy offerings suggest MAT is available — confirm the specific medications and prescriber access during the admissions conversation.