Keep key addiction recovery reform to hold treatment providers accountable | Editorial
Correction: An earlier version incorrectly stated that Florida Department of Children & Families Secretary Shevaun Harris asked to have language requiring posting consumer information regarding addiction recovery programs removed from a bill before the Florida Legislature. She did not make the ask. Sen. Gayle Harrell, the bill's sponsor, is considering removing the language on her own.
Imagine a state agency that has been content to sit on the sidelines for too long in overseeing Florida's troubled addiction recovery industry now promising to go "all-in" on addressing a big problem that has led to patient deaths due to shoddy care.
HB 1065 and SB 1180 has language requiring the Florida Department of Children & Families to prominently post information regarding complaints, inspections and investigative reports on addiction treatment programs to help those who need it find competent care. Unfortunately, that language might be lifted because of the department's promises to post the information without any legal requirements.
“We have absolute guarantees from the secretary,” Sen. Gayle Harrell, R.-Stuart, said of her talk with DCF. “We have the word of the secretary that there’s going to be transparency.”
The Palm Beach Post investigates: Florida Shuffle: State's failure to oversee addiction treatment leaves patients in deadly danger
The "word of the secretary?" Sorry, the Post Editorial Board doesn't buy it and neither should lawmakers hoping to rid the state of what has become our national shame of dubious and often fraudulent addiction recovery care. We also don't believe DCF is the right state agency to oversee Florida's network of problematic addiction treatment providers.
Addiction treatment involves medical and psychiatric procedures but the department doesn't have the medical staff capable of locating information needed to respond to violations. The agency still relies on the addiction treatment providers to promote their credentials, address problems and correct lapses. Until that changes, all the assurances of change from DCF remain worthless.
Palm Beach Post continues to raise concerns about 'Florida Shuffle.'
The "Florida Shuffle," is the moniker that describes what has become a national problem fueled by the state's failure to oversee addiction treatment. That failure has resulted in too many patients who flock to Florida seeking help and sobriety receiving inadequate care that puts their lives at risk.
Last September, The Palm Beach Post published the results of a major investigation detailing DCF dysfunction and dereliction in its oversight of addiction treatment. The months-long probe by Post investigative reporter Antigone Barton revealed a revolving door of unsuspecting patients lured by unscrupulous and unqualified providers marketing treatment that fails to meet medical standards.
The bottom line: While the Florida Department of Children and Families is responsible for regulating addiction treatment programs, an industry riddled with abuse, fraud and negligence, the agency lacks the medically qualified staff to evaluate the addiction programs it licenses. The onus to make sure such programs are credible and competently run too often falls on addicted patients.
To address the paper's findings and the community's concerns, the Post is holding a forum today, Jan. 17, at the Palm Beach State College Lake Worth Beach campus. The “Fixing the Florida Shuffle – Next Steps” forum will feature a panel moderated by Barton that includes representatives from the Palm Beach County State Attorney's office, the Health Care District of Palm Beach County, the county's Addiction Recovery Task Force and a patient whose experiences with addiction treatment in the county contributed to the Post's investigation. The forum runs from 6:15 p.m. to 8:30 p.m.
The Post's Editorial Board has made its position on the Florida Shuffle clear. We believe the state's monitoring of addiction treatment is at best irresponsible and at worst, criminal. We also believe that AHCA is the more appropriate agency to provide that oversight. It already regulates medical services, including nursing homes, outpatient clinics and home healthcare programs, which makes it a far better fit to regulate addiction recovery than DCF ever could be.
Kudos to Harrell and Rep. Mike Caruso, R-West Palm Beach for crafting legislation that promises real reform to drug addiction treatment. But that change won't come until the Legislature either gives AHCA the job or provides DCF the staff and resources to properly monitor addiction recovery.
Change certainly won't come by removing the bill's language that would make both drug treatment providers operating in Florida and the state agency now monitoring them more accountable.
This article originally appeared on Palm Beach Post: Florida Legislature must keep key reform in addiction treatment bill.
