Youth Substance Use Disorder Treatment and Recovery Program Act of 2019.

Existing law establishes the Medi-Cal program, which is administered by the State Department of Health Care Services and under which qualified low-income individuals receive medically necessary health care services, including Early and Periodic Screening, Diagnosis, and Treatment (EPSDT) for an individual under 21 years of age, subject to utilization controls and consistent with federal requirements. The Medi-Cal program is, in part, governed and funded by federal Medicaid program provisions. Existing law consolidated within the State Department of Health Care Services all substance use disorder functions and programs from the former State Department of Alcohol and Drug Programs. The existing Adolescent Alcohol and Drug Treatment and Recovery Program Act of 1998, which authorized the department to establish community-based nonresidential and residential recovery programs to intervene and treat the problems of alcohol and other drug use among youth, became inoperative on July 1, 2013. This bill would repeal those inoperative provisions and would enact the Youth Substance Use Disorder Treatment and Recovery Program Act of 2019, with similar provisions to, in part, require the department, on or before January 1, 2021, to establish community-based nonresidential and residential treatment and recovery programs to intervene and treat the problems of alcohol and drug use among youth under 21 years of age. The bill would additionally require the department, in collaboration with counties and providers of substance use disorder services, to establish through regulation criteria for participation, programmatic requirements, treatment standards, and terms and conditions for funding. The bill would require the criteria to also include consideration of indicators of drug and alcohol use among youth. The bill would require the department's regulations for these programs to describe a continuum of care to identify, treat, and support recovery from substance misuse for youth under 21 years of age, as specified. The bill would require the department to report to the Legislature during budget hearings regarding the status of the implementation of the program, and to annually report to the Legislature specified utilization data. The bill would additionally require the department to update its Medi-Cal billing codes to include specified services, based on whether those services are medically necessary. The bill would make related findings and declarations.