PHOENIX — A bill in the Arizona State Senate would change the definition of "sober living homes" to allow the Department of Health Services to better license them, the bill's sponsor says
Currently, not all facilities that call themselves sober living facilities need to be licensed. And state law does not prohibit unlicensed facilities from using the title "sober living home."
But SB 1361 would change the definition of a sober living facility to a place where two or more unrelated people lived together while in recovery.
The bill's sponsor, Sen. Frank Carroll (R-LD 28), said his bill is intended to address that definition loophole.
"It says they must be licensed," Carroll said. "They must be licensed and it's for DHS to turn around and license those facilities."
During the first hearing for the bill, representatives of Goodyear and Surprise testified about finding people passed out in front of sober living homes, others with no idea how they'd gotten there.
"I put stock in a title, in a name when you say sober living home," Carroll said.
The sober living home loophole is part of a larger problem involving unlicensed sober living homes, rehab facilities and the Native American insurance programs through AHCCCS, the state's Medicaid program.
State officials estimate fraudulent billing involving rehabs has topped $1 billion.
State officials have suspended hundreds of facilities and rehabs suspected of overbilling, accusing some of billing for dead people, billing for incarcerated people. Others have been accused of providing patients for treatment in exchange for kickbacks through sting operations with the Arizona Attorney General's office.
SB 1361 is currently making its way through the Arizona State Senate.
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