#SmartSolutions

Expanding Access to Treatment for Substance Use Disorders

• BUDGET ADVOCACY:  $4 million from the General Fund dollars for the California Bridge program, which provides training and guidance to emergency department doctors to expand and sustain their MAT programs, and the behavior health navigators program. 
• SB 909 (Umberg): Address physician shortages in underserved areas by eliminating the cap on the Steven M. Thompson loan repayment program for physicians who agree to provide direct patient care in an underserved area for 36 months.
• SB 999 (Cortese):  This bill would expedite authorization for substance use disorder treatment by requiring that a health care service plan and a disability insurer – and an entity acting on a plan’s or insurer’s behalf – ensure compliance with specific requirements for utilization review, including maintaining telephone access during California business hours for a health care provider to request authorization for mental health and substance use disorder care and conducting peer-to-peer discussions regarding specific patient issues related to treatment.
• SB 1319 (Wahab): Expedite approval of projects that expand the continuum of substance use disorder rehabilitation facilities.
• SB 1320 (Wahab): Require health plans to develop a mechanism to reimburse providers for mental health and substance use disorder treatment services that are integrated with primary care services. 
• SB 1385 (Roth): Implement additional Emergency Department Practices by using navigators in urgent and critical medical settings and in the criminal justice system to treatment and recovery options.
• SB 1468 (Ochoa Bogh and Roth): Educate and encourage providers to make use of the new federal Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA) rule to allow practitioners to dispense a three-day supply of narcotic medication to start detoxification treatment or maintenance treatment for people who use opioids.
• AB 2115 (Haney): This bill would expand access to medication assisted treatment (MAT) in California to save lives by aligning our Title 9 regulations to the new Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA) Title 42 regs on opioid treatment programs. By doing so, this bill would allow a nonprofit or free clinic to dispense MAT while arrangements are being made for referral for treatment. 

Access to Treatment for Substance Use Disorders within the Criminal Justice System

• SB 910 (Umberg): Establish statewide standards used by collaborative courts to improve programming, drug testing and Medical Assisted Treatment (MAT) for individuals moving through the criminal justice system.

Harm Reduction Strategies

• SB 997 (Portantino): This bill would expand access to overdose reversal drugs and testing strips in schools by requiring school districts, county offices of education, and charter schools to develop and adopt a policy that allows pupils in middle schools and high schools to carry a federally approved naloxone hydrochloride nasal spray, as provided, for the emergency treatment of persons suffering, or reasonably believed to be suffering, from an opioid overdose. The bill would require public middle schools and high schools that are operated by a local educational agency to stock and distribute fentanyl test strips, as provided, and to notify pupils about the presence and location of fentanyl test strips.
• SB 1442 (Ochoa Bogh and Skinner): Empowers the CalRX to supply California with vital United States Food and Drug Administration (USFDA) approved testing and health assessment equipment which will help increase access to affordable fentanyl testing strips for diagnostics purposes.
• AB 1842 (Reyes): This bill would expedite access of overdose reversal drugs and medication assisted treatment by prohibiting a medical service plan and a health insurer from subjecting the following to prior authorization or step therapy: a naloxone product or another opioid antagonist approved by the United States Food and Drug Administration, or a buprenorphine product or long-acting injectable naltrexone for detoxification or maintenance treatment of a substance use disorder. 
• AB 1915 (Arambula): This bill would expand access to overdose reversal drugs in schools requiring school districts, county offices of education, and charter schools that voluntarily determine to make naloxone hydrochloride or another opioid antagonist available on campus to ensure that the naloxone hydrochloride or another opioid antagonist is placed in an appropriate location that is widely known and easily accessible, during school hours and after school hours. The bill would require the naloxone hydrochloride or another opioid antagonist to be located on campus in at least one of several specified locations.
• AB 1996 (Alanis): This bill would expand access to overdose reversal drugs by requiring each stadium, concert venue, and amusement park to ensure that the naloxone hydrochloride or other opioid antagonist is easily accessible and its location is widely known. The bill would require the department to develop an opioid overdose training program for these establishments and to notify these establishments of this training program.
• AB 2136 (Jones-Sawyer): Would encourage more jurisdictions, research institutions and community-based organizations, such as harm reduction organizations, to offer critical drug checking services in their local communities and jurisdictions. The bill would provide the infrastructure for drug checking services to be offered by creating immunity for those engaged in these services with proper protection and immunity to engage in these services without fear of legal, civil, criminal, and administrative consequences that may arise from providing these services to the public.