Governor signs opioid crisis legislation authored by Assembly's Rudy Salas

 AB 2861 will allow Medi-Cal reimbursement for certified substance use disorder counselors that provide treatment via telehealth to those suffering from addiction. 

“AB 2861 will provide additional access to treatment in rural areas where the opioid crisis has devastated our outlying communities,” said Salas. “Too many families have tragically lost loved ones to the opioid epidemic. I thank the governor for signing AB 2861 and will continue looking for ways to increase access to care for vulnerable and underserved populations.”

Telehealth is a term broadly used to describe an alternative, modern approach to the delivery of health care services utilizing communication and information technologies – such as a live two-way interaction between a patient and a provider using audiovisual telecommunications technology – that can increase access to an array of health care services.

The rapid increase in the use of prescription and non-prescription opioid drugs like fentanyl and heroin in the United States has reached epidemic levels. According to preliminary estimates from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), drug overdoses killed about 72,000 Americans last year, a record number that reflects a rise of about 10 percent and which is higher than yearly death totals from H.I.V, car crashes or gun deaths.

 The opioid crisis combined with a shortage of behavioral health care providers – problems which notably tend to be especially acute in rural areas – have underscored the need to find ways to increase access to treatment and recovery. 

“Individual counseling services provided by telehealth are an invaluable tool for increasing treatment capacity across the state at a time when drug overdose is a leading cause of accidental death,” said Tom Renfree, Interim Executive Director of the County Behavioral Health Directors Association. “We thank Assemblymember Salas for introducing this bill that will help to ensure timely access to substance use disorder treatment in all of our communities and applaud the governor for signing the legislation.”

In addition to the severe and growing shortage of behavioral health professionals in rural areas of the state, rural counties face some other barriers that make access to treatment particularly difficult, including fewer facilities, longer distances to those facilities, fewer public transportation options, and a lack of anonymity.

AB 2861 will help reduce all of these barriers in the most underserved communities by expanding substance use disorder treatment delivered via telehealth to all Californians. The bill received support from health care providers, counties and mental health advocates and passed both houses of the Legislature with bi-partisan support.