"Gold Standard" of Addiction Treatment

For several decades 28 days of inpatient care has been the "Gold Standard" in the Substance Use Disorder treatment profession for ensuring proper detox, residential care and stabilization has been achieved in order to step down to outpatient, a key level of care for long term recovery.

This is not being allowed to happen for the many patients whose small group employer plans are regulated by California.

SB 999 would require insurance companies to hire doctors with addiction training, currently practicing addiction, to do the peer-to-peer reviews they use to authorize or deny additional days of treatment recommended by actual addiction doctors, based on the criteria of the American Society of Addiction Medicine which became California law on January 1, 2021.

Read table below to see how Insurance companies currently use unqualified doctors to limit needed days of residential treatment (and save themselves money).