BILL ANALYSIS Ó
SENATE COMMITTEE ON APPROPRIATIONS
Senator Ricardo Lara, Chair
2015 - 2016 Regular Session
AB 848 (Mark Stone) - Alcoholism and drug abuse treatment
facilities
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|Version: July 16, 2015 |Policy Vote: HEALTH 8 - 1 |
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|Urgency: No |Mandate: No |
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|Hearing Date: August 17, 2015 |Consultant: Brendan McCarthy |
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This bill meets the criteria for referral to the Suspense File.
Bill
Summary: AB 848 would allow alcoholism and drug abuse recovery
or treatment facilities licensed by the Department of Health
Care Services to provide incidental medical services.
Fiscal
Impact:
One-time costs of about $550,000 to develop program
requirements and adopt regulations by the Department of Health
Care Services (General Fund).
Ongoing costs of about $550,000 per year to perform ongoing
licensing, inspection, and enforcement activities relating to
facilities licensed to provide incidental medical services by
the Department of Health Care Services, offset by fee revenues
(Residential and Outpatient Program Licensing Fund).
Unknown additional legal costs relating to future enforcement
actions that may result in appeals or litigation (Residential
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and Outpatient Program Licensing Fund). The Department has
indicated that there could be significant additional legal
costs due to enforcement activity and the complexities of
determining appropriate medical care for residents. Whether or
not such costs will occur is not known at this time.
Background: Under current law, the Department of Health Care Services
licenses and regulates residential treatment facilities that
provide recovery and detoxification services to adults who are
addicted to alcohol and/or drugs. (These licensing functions
were transferred to the Department of Health Care Services from
the Department of Alcohol and Drug Programs, which was
eliminated.)
Current law does not allow operators of those licensed
facilities to provide medical care to patients. However, the
Senate Office of Oversight and Outcomes found that many licensed
facilities do provide medical care to patients, in violation of
current licensing requirements.
Proposed Law:
AB 848 would allow alcoholism and drug abuse recovery or
treatment facilities licensed by the Department of Health Care
Services to provide incidental medical services.
Specific provisions of the bill would:
Require a licensed facility to obtain a form signed by a
health care provider from an applicant for services (i.e. a
resident) that lists the necessary medical services the
applicant needs;
Require the Department of Health Care Services to define
incidental medical services in regulation;
Authorize a licensed alcoholism or drug abuse recovery or
treatment facility to permit incidental medical services to be
provided to a resident of the facility, if specified
conditions are met;
Require the Department to adopt implementing regulations by
July 1, 2017, but also allow the Department to implement the
requirements of the bill prior to adoption of those
regulations through provider bulletins or other means;
Require a facility that intends to permit incidental medical
services to provide specified information to the Department;
Require the Department to establish an additional license fee
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for those facilities that wish to permit incidental medical
services, in an amount sufficient to cover the Department's
licensing and regulatory costs.
Related
Legislation:
AB 395 (Fox, 2013) would have expanded the types of facilities
licensed by the Department of Health Care Services as
alcoholism or drug abuse recovery or treatment facilities to
include facilities that provide medical care. That bill was
held on this committee's Suspense File.
AB 972 (Butler and Beall, 2011) would have expanded the
category of residential treatment facilities to include
facilities that provide limited medical services. That bill
was held on this committee's Suspense File.
AB 2221 (Beall, 2010) was similar to AB 972. that bill was
held on this committee's Suspense File.
Staff
Comments: According to the Senate Office of Oversight and Outcomes
report, there has been a trend in the alcohol and drug treatment
industry in recent years away from a purely "social model" of
treatment (based on group counseling) towards a model that
incorporates more medical interventions into detoxification and
treatment. As noted above, the report indicates that there are
many treatment facilities in the state that are currently
providing medical services to residents.
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