Back when we started writing about fraud and abuse and death in California’s private-pay addiction treatment centers in 2017, we had to wait months for copies of inspection reports and violations from state regulators.
Now, seven years later, we still have to wait months for those records!
Imagine being the parent of a kid in crisis, trying to find a safe place for them to get help, making life-or-death decisions based on slick websites and grand promises rather than official tallies of violations, complaints and, yes, deaths.
Enter now Assembly Bill 2081 by Assemblymember Laurie Davies, R-Laguna Niguel. It’s a simple plea for transparency, which would require state-licensed and/or certified programs to disclose, on their own websites, “if a legal, disciplinary or other enforcement action has been brought” by state regulators, and the program was found to be in violation.
The web disclosure would have to include the violation’s date and nature, and there’d be a $2,500 civil penalty for failure to comply.
Mind you, the state has been working to put this information online — for years now! — but Davies isn’t inclined to wait much longer.
“We’re looking for transparency,” she said. “The most important thing is ensuring the patients’ safety. There are bad actors out there. If there’s a violation, it’s on the website, you can see what their record is. Sometimes places look great on the website, but it’s very different once you get there.”
Deja vu again?
The Department of Health Care Services — which licenses and regulates addiction treatment programs in California — has promised in recent years to provide folks quick, online access to its public records on licensed treatment centers via a public dashboard.
This is not exactly groundbreaking stuff. The California Department of Social Services, which licenses and inspects group homes for disabled folks and kiddie daycares, has been posting inspection and complaint…
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