-ATIN- - 05/30/08 - Rumors are swirling throughout the addiction treatment industry concerning a possible takeover of struggling Palm Beach, FL-based Hanley Center by venerable Pennsylvannia-based Caron, which is among the fastest growing of the nation's top tier nonprofit addiction centers.

Approached at Naatp in May about the rumors, Caron CFO Drew Rothermel neither confirmed nor denied that merger talks were underway between the two centers, but he seemed dubious about the possibility of such a linkup.

Caron CEO Doug Tieman has close ties to the founding Hanley family dating back to the opening of the addiction center in the mid-1980s. Tieman, then an executive an Hazelden, was entrusted with the task of overseeing and directing the startup of the 90-bed facility. And Caron has a recent history of expansion by acquisition, having acquired Renaissance in South Florida, one of pioneers of the now widely immitated Florida Model of addiction care.

Hanley has been struggling with low census for many months now. Terry Allen, whose employment contract the Hanley board recently refused to renew, told Treatment Magazine in November that census had been averaging "in the high 40s" percent. He insisted the institution was not in any danger of going bankrupt.

Newswire Staff

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