Sober home bills demoted to a study
The Florida Legislature responded to corruption in the drug treatment industry that spawned an FBI task force by killing bills by two local lawmakers that would have addressed shady business practices and by defunding the Florida Association of Recovery Residences — the Boca Raton-based nonprofifit tasked with creating a voluntary certifification program for sober homes.
But the budget expected to go to the governor Friday contains $275,000 for Palm Beach County State Attorney Dave Aronberg to lead a study of laws relating to the industry and report to the governor and Legislature by year’s end.
The study has received a “positive groundswell of interest” from the industry, said Aronberg’s spokesman, Mike Edmondson. But how the study would be carried out — and who would be involved — is still undetermined. The only group Edmondson said surely would be involved is FARR.
FARR, meanwhile, is struggling to understand why the budget didn’t include its money to oversee the state’s first steps toward industry oversight.
“We’re being told it was an oversight and efforts are underway to rectify it,” said John Lehman, president of FARR. He said he still believes the Legislature “is committed to the success” of the voluntary certification program.
Lehman said FARR hopes to raise money from other sources. As for the organization’s future: “FARR will continue to limp forward,” Lehman said.
Lawmakers also took little interest in bills by Sen. Jeff Clemens, D-Lake Worth, and Reps. Bill Hager, R-Boca Raton, and Patrick Rooney, R-West Palm Beach, that would have targeted unethical marketing practices in the addiction treatment industry.
Among the issues addressed in the bills were shady business practices — including patient brokering, insurance fraud and urine testing kickbacks — practices exposed by The Palm Beach Post in 2015.
Several weeks ago, when Clemens realized his bill was dead, he began working to get money for a study to be led by Aronberg, who had complained that the earlier bill gave him authority to conduct a study but no money. The study would examine how laws and regulations can address corruption and the state’s heroin epidemic.
“It became clear that it was difficult to find agreement on what approach to take that would work and was constitutional,” Clemens said. “We’re hoping that this will allow us to come back next year with a clear mandate to implement a slate of solutions all in one fell swoop.”
Clemens said he also hoped that some of the money for identifying “statutory enhancements” would include “actually prosecuting a few of these cases to see what statutorily is working and what needs enhancements.”
While the money appears to be safely in the budget to be approved by both houses Friday, the potential for a veto by Gov. Rick Scott, still smarting from the Legislature’s decision to back off his tax-cut plan, remains. Edmondson said he knew of no opposition to the money.
The only problem, he said, might be the yearend deadline. “That remains to be seen whether the work can be done in that period of time,” he said.
Clemens and Hager have teamed for years to address problems in the county’s largely unregulated sober home industry. This past year, lawmakers approved their efforts by passing a bill that created a voluntary certification program for sober homes. As of July 1, inpatient treatment centers only will be allowed to refer recovering addicts to sober homes that obtain certification.
But as of Wednesday, FARR had no money to oversee certification.
As originally filed this year, the bills introduced by Clemens, Hag- er and Rooney were identical. Hager later filed an amendment to his bill (HB 823) that would have created a pilot program headed by Aronberg to address regulation, prevention, detection and prosecution of shady business practices.
Clemens’ bill (SB 1138) remained largely intact. However, neither bill made it through committees.
“I’m as frustrated as anyone but all I can do is keep tilting at the windmills,” Clemens said.
Lawmakers, however, passed several other measures aimed at drug abuse.
SB 422 prohibits insurance companies from requiring prior authorization for abuse-deterrent prescription opioids unless there is a similar prior-authorization requirement for opioids that do not have abuse-deterrent properties. Abuse-deterrent drugs are specially formulated to prevent abuse, such as physical barriers that can prevent chewing, crushing, cutting, grating, or grinding of pills.
SB 242 creates a pilot needle exchange program in Miami-Dade County to address the increase in HIV infections caused by addicts who share needles. Tax dollars cannot be used to buy needles for the program.
Budget proposals include $100,000 for the Florida Certification Board to continue developing standards for recovery residence administrators. An additional $2 million will boost state efforts to provide naltrexone, also known as Vivitrol, to selected providers treating alcoholics and addicts through a program overseen by the Florida Alcohol and Drug Abuse Association. Access Recovery Solutions, a treatment center in Delray Beach, is the only local provider in the program.