Click here to read The Alliance’s testimony on the bill.

This bill makes various changes affecting opioid use prevention and treatment. Information about select sections is below. To read a detailed analysis of each section of the bill from the Office of Legislative Research, please click here.

Specifically, the bill:

1. allows practitioners authorized to prescribe controlled substances to treat patients by dispensing controlled substances (e.g., methadone) from a mobile unit (§ 3);
2. allows multi-care institutions to provide behavioral health services or substance use disorder treatment services in a mobile narcotic treatment program (§ 4);
3. requires the Department of Mental Health and Addition Services’ (DMHAS) triennial state substance use disorder plan to include department policies, guidelines, and practices to reduce the negative personal and public health impacts of behavior associated with alcohol and drug abuse, including opioid drug abuse (§§ 5 & 6); and
4. extends by one year, until January 1, 2023, the date by which DMHAS must establish a pilot program in up to five urban, suburban, and rural communities to serve individuals with opioid use disorder (§ 7).

§ 3 — Mobile Units for Dispensing Controlled Substances

The bill allows practitioners authorized to prescribe controlled substances to treat patients by dispensing controlled substances (e.g., methadone) through a mobile unit.

Specifically, it requires a prescribing practitioner who transports controlled substances to treat patients at a different location than the one the practitioner provided the Department of Consumer Protection (DCP) (when obtaining a controlled substances registration and prescription drug monitoring program access), to:

1. notify DCP, in a manner the commissioner prescribes, of the intent to transport the controlled substances;
2. after dispensing the controlled substances, return any remaining amount to a secure location at the address provided to DCP; and
3. report to the Prescription Drug Monitoring Program any dispensing of these substances that occurs at a location other than the location provided to DCP.

Under the bill, if the practitioner is unable to return any remaining amount of the controlled substances to the address, the commissioner may approve an alternate location, provided it is also approved by the federal Drug Enforcement Agency.

§ 4 — Multicare Institutions

The bill allows multicare institutions to provide behavioral health services or substance use disorder treatment services to patients in a mobile narcotic treatment program.

Existing law authorizes the institutions to provide these services at a satellite unit or other off-site location, so long as they provide the Department of Public Health a list of these locations on their initial or licensure renewal application.

By law, multicare institutions include hospitals, psychiatric outpatient clinics for adults, free-standing facilities for substance abuse treatment, psychiatric hospitals, or general acute care hospitals that provide outpatient behavioral health services that (1) have more than one facility or one or more satellite units owned and operated by a single licensee and (2) offer complex patient health care services at each facility or satellite unit.

§ 7 —DMHAS Opioid Use Disorder Pilot Program

Existing law requires DMHAS to establish a pilot program, within available appropriations, in up to five urban, suburban, and rural communities to serve individuals with opioid use disorder. The bill extends, by one year until January 1, 2023, the date by which DMHAS must establish the program.

The bill correspondingly extends by one year, until January 1, 2024, the date by which the DMHAS commissioner must report to the Public Health Committee on the pilot program, including its success and any recommendations to continue or expand it.

Under existing law, each community participating in the pilot program must form a team of at least two peer navigators who must, among other things, (1) travel throughout the community to address the health care and social needs of individuals with opioid use disorder and (2) be trained on non-coercive and non-stigmatizing ways to engage these individuals, as determined by the DMHAS commissioner.