State Department of Health Care Services: substance abuse treatment: disclosures.

Senator Umberg’s proposal would require the state health care department to expand disclosures tied to licensure and certification of adult alcoholism or drug abuse recovery facilities and to create a public violations dashboard, linking operators’ online disclosures to a centralized administrator list. Operators would must include on their websites and intake forms a disclosure that individuals may check the department’s site to verify whether a facility’s license or program certification is in probationary status, subject to a temporary suspension, revoked, or a notice of operation in violation of law, and the disclosure must include a link to the department’s list. The department would also indicate on that list, in a clearly visible location and readable font, that notices issued to recovery residences for a violation of a specified provision are not included in the list.

The bill directs the department to post on its website an identification and a summary of each violation issued for facilities and programs on the list, with data elements that include the name of the entity or person, a citation to the relevant statute or regulation, a summary of the department’s decision to issue the violation, the date the violation was issued, and any other information the department determines is necessary for public recognition, all while protecting privacy rights. Violations disclosed under this framework would continue to be subject to the department’s established penalties for license or certification violations, and the posting requirements are constrained by privacy protections to avoid unlawful disclosure of personal information.

Implementation would affect operators of licensed alcoholism or drug abuse recovery facilities and certified programs, as well as the department’s data-management and public-facing information systems. The bill contemplates no explicit new appropriation, but places the proposal under fiscal committee review and notes potential costs related to updating websites, creating the violations-identification pages, and maintaining accessibility and privacy safeguards. There is no stated effective date in the text, leaving timing and transition steps to standard statutory conventions or separate budgetary actions.

In context, the measure introduces a formal, public-facing mechanism to summarize enforcement actions and tie operator disclosures to a central repository, while drawing a careful line around recovery-residence notices. Questions an observer might pursue include how broadly “violation” is defined for posting, how redactions or privacy considerations are applied in practice, and the timelines for updating the dashboard and operator disclosures as new actions occur.