CSAM Legislative Priorities for 2009-2010
AB 244 (Beall) Health Care Coverage: Mental Health Service: This bill brings fairness and equality (parity) to insurance coverage for mental health services, alcohol and drug addiction. It is a key reform that allows alcohol and drug addiction to be treated as the disease it is and requires the private insurance carriers to include this coverage in their plans. [fact sheet]
AB 526 (Fuentes) Public Protection and Physician Health Program Act AB 526 creates a Public Protection and Physician Health Program that would provide treatment referral and monitoring to physicians with substance use disorders (alcohol and other drug use disorders) or other mental disorders. [fact sheet]
2009/10 Budget • Funding for Proposition 36 Addiction Treatment -- Proposition 36, an initiative approved by 61% of voters in 2000 that permanently changed state law to allow first- and second-time nonviolent, low-level drug possession offenders the option of treatment rather than conventional sentencing to jail or prison. The governor’s proposal to eliminate Proposition 36 funding threatens to leave first and
second-time drug possession offenders without access to treatment to which they are legally entitled. This could result in increased incarceration of people convicted of low-level drug offenses, contradicting the intent of Proposition 36 and reducing chances for successful outcomes of addicted Californians. [fact sheet]
AB 1055 (Chesbro) Substance Abuse: Treatment Facilities This bill clarifies two distinct regulatory measures and has two parts. The first part authorizes treatment for substance abuse disorders to be provided by physicians on-site at residential treatment programs. It is intended to update an outdated California health and safety code that limits residential facilities to providing only "non-medical services" to adults recovering from addictive illnesses. The second part aligns California law to be consistent with Federal law to permit qualified physicians, regardless of the location of his/her practice, to treat opioid dependence (such as heroin addiction and addiction to pain medications) using the newest office-based treatment available: buprenorphine. [fact sheet]
AB 417 (Beall) Medi-Cal Drug Treatment Program: Buprenorphine This bill would add buprenorphine services to the list of Drug Medi-Cal services, provided the buprenorphine services are either administered by a licensed narcotic treatment program or ordered or prescribed by a physician who complies with federal requirements. [fact sheet]
Governor Signs Legislation to Remove Barrier to Screening
On September 30, 2008, Governor Schwarzenegger signed a CSAM-initiated bill to repeal the state's Uniform Policy Provision Law (UPPL), a 60-year-old law that allows insurers to deny claims if accident victims test positive for alcohol or other drugs. The law had the unintended consequence of discouraging hospitals and other healthcare facilities from screening patients for addictive disorders.
The bill, AB 1461, was carried by Assemblymember Paul Krekorian (D-Burbank/Glendale). CSAM has worked for seven years to accomplish this victory. Now that one of the most significant barriers to early detection of substance abuse and dependence has been removed, and early referral to treatment can become the norm, the hard work begins. Unless we build on this repeal of UPPL by finding ways to integrate SBIRT (Screening, Brief Intervention and Referral to Treatment) services into the standard continuum of healthcare, our victory will remain small. Repeal of UPPL is a step toward creating the necessary infrastructure for a comprehensive, effective approach to substance abuse disorders. The next steps are up to us, to press beyond the barrier that UPPL had presented before it finally became history.
Schwarzenegger Vetoes New Physician Health Program
The Governor vetoed AB 214 which would have created a new Physician Health Program to provide an avenue to treatment and a method for monitoring physicians addressing the disease of addiction and mental health disorders. The Medical Board of CA is uninterested in operating such a program, yet the Governor, in his veto message offers the help of his office to find a way to design such a program. His veto message, while disappointing to the stakeholders who have worked for the past year crafting the legislation to form a new program, it also opens the door for future negotiations with the Medical Board of CA.
State Parity Bill Vetoed, But Parity Legislation Sails Through Congress
Schwarzenegger vetoed, AB 1887, the state parity bill, however at the Federal level, the measure sailed through Congress as part of the national economic bailout package. According to CSAM past president Don Kurth, MD, "We have changed the course of our nation by opening a pathway to treatment which will save hundreds of thousands of lives of those who suffer from the disease of addiction. And, we have successfully brought national recognition to our professional ability to craft and institute legislation. ASAM and CSAM have long been advocating for parity -- take a moment to savor the victory - you deserve it."
