The opioid epidemic has been raging for years, and now with the added anxiety and isolation of COVID, the demand for treatment has never been greater. Yet, addiction treatment providers are facing new hurdles at every turn. Commercial insurance companies are responding to heightened demand for care with a constant stream of new initiatives and strategies designed to reduce their behavioral health spend. State and Federal legislatures are creating laws that demand providers’ heightened vigilance, often at great expense. Government regulators are investing more resources to ensure compliance and investigate perceived wrongdoers. Local communities are becoming more creative and savvy in finding ways to keep “NIMBY” facilities and sober homes out of their neighborhoods. Employment laws drive up labor and administrative costs of operating. And against this challenging backdrop, most providers just want to help folks recover.
In this presentation, you will receive an overview of key legal issues that are currently affecting California’s addiction treatment industry. The topics covered will include:
- Reimbursement of addiction treatment services and the ongoing battle for insurance coverage;
- Legal challenges to marketing addition treatment services and patient referral arrangements
- The NIBYism affecting residential treatment centers and sober living homes
- Legislation recently passed or appearing on the horizon
- Employment laws and trends affecting the industry
- The Insurance Fraud Prevention Act as applied to the addiction treatment industry
