Alcohol and drug treatment programs: licensing and certification fee.

Existing law makes the State Department of Health Care Services responsible for administering prevention, treatment, and recovery programs for adult alcoholism and drug abuse. Existing law requires the department to charge a fee to all programs for licensure or certification by the department and to submit any proposed new fees or fee changes to the Legislature for approval, as specified. Existing law prohibits new fees or fee changes from being implemented without legislative approval. This bill would require all fees for licensing of residential treatment facilities and certification of treatment programs that provide addiction treatment services to be at the rate last published in 2022. The bill would leave that rate in effect until January 1, 2031, or until deaths related to opioid overdose reported by the California Overdose Surveillance Dashboard have declined by 50%, whichever is first. The bill would then require that fee increases continue until licensing and certification programs are self-sufficient, but would prohibit the increase from exceeding 15% in a single year.