Substance abuse: recovery and treatment services.

(1) Existing law grants the Department of Health Care Services the sole authority in state government to license adult alcoholism or drug abuse recovery or treatment facilities. The department is authorized to issue a license to specified types of facilities if certain criteria are met. Existing regulations require licensees to report specified events and incidents to the department, including, among others, the death of a resident at a licensed facility. This bill would require the department to design its death investigation policy to ensure that the death of a resident of a licensed facility is addressed and investigated by the department in a timely manner. The bill would specify the content of telephonic and written reports of resident deaths occurring in a licensed facility that are required to be reported to the department. This bill would require that a telephonic report be submitted to the department within one working day, and a written report within 7 calendar days, of the event or incident. (2) Existing law grants the department the sole authority in state government to determine the qualifications, including the appropriate skills, education, training, and experience of personnel working within alcoholism or drug abuse recovery and treatment programs licensed, certified, or funded under state law. The department, by regulation, requires that a person who will provide counseling services to those programs to register with, and be certified by, a nationally accredited certifying organization approved by the department. This bill would prohibit the department from approving a certifying organization for those purposes if the organization does not, prior to registering or certifying an individual, contact other department-approved certifying organizations to determine whether the individual has ever had his or her registration or certification revoked. The bill would require a certifying organization to deny a counselor's request for registration if the counselor's registration or certification has been previously revoked, and to send the counselor a written notice of denial. This bill would authorize the department to implement, interpret, or make specific the provisions described above by all-county letters, plan letters, plan or provider bulletins, or similar instructions, until the time the department adopts regulations. The bill would require the department to adopt those regulations by December 31, 2017.