Assemblymember Diane Dixon, a former Newport Beach mayor, told a Laguna Beach mayoral podcast that a legislative audit of drug-and-alcohol rehabilitation operations prompted legislation she says will strengthen reporting and oversight for some facilities.

Dixon, who said she was elected in 2022 and has had “about 18 or 20” bills signed into law, described the audit as taking roughly a year and a half and producing findings that revealed regulatory gaps between the Department of Health Care Services (DHCS) and the Department of Social Services (DSS). “DHCS only deals with detox,” she said, and, according to the audit she cited, those facilities receive licensing but limited follow-up and complaint resolution that she described as taking “over a year.”

Dixon said one bill she sponsored—identified on-record during the conversation with several variants of the number (the podcast audio reads as AB 1356/variants)—cleared the Assembly and Senate with technical amendments and was on its way to the governor; she said the governor signed it. “On my bill… it got through, got signed by the governor a few weeks ago,” she said. As she described it on the podcast, the law requires that when there is a death in a DHCS- or DSS-regulated facility the death must be reported to law enforcement within 30 days, and the facility must take steps to address or mitigate the cause within 60 days so the incident does not recur.

Dixon framed the effort as focused on patient welfare rather than neighborhood exclusion: “Change the narrative. It’s about getting people well,” she said, adding that some operators market recovery services in ways she called “nefarious.” She said the audit also found that some operators aggregate multiple homes in close proximity and essentially recreate institutional settings without the regulatory oversight of licensed medical programs.

Looking ahead, Dixon said she is holding two related bills for the next legislative year: one aimed at limiting the proximity or aggregation of operator-owned homes so operators cannot replicate institutional conditions across neighborhoods, and another that would require an intake attestation clarifying that a facility does not provide medical services or insurance coverage so prospective residents are not misled. “There will be an attestation when someone is filling out the form to enter this facility… they have to acknowledge that there’s no medical insurance, no medical service provided,” she said.

Dixon attributed her ability to advance the measure to bipartisan relationships in Sacramento, thanking Assemblymember Mia Bonta for her committee support. She said the audit’s findings have also been the basis for bills introduced by other lawmakers.

The Assemblymember frequently framed the audit’s results as the factual basis for reform; the podcast did not include independent confirmation of the audit text or the final statutory language beyond Dixon’s on-record description. Dixon’s descriptions of agency roles, complaint-resolution timing and the bill number reflect her account on the podcast; where she quoted numbers or the bill identifier, the article notes those as her on-record statements.

Dixon said the two follow-up bills remain active and will return to committee next year, and that the measure she described as enacted will be part of continued oversight and follow-up work.