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Senate panel weighs oversight vs. voluntary certification for recovery residences in S.157
Summary
Lawmakers, Health Department staff and recovery providers debated S.157’s approach to overseeing recovery residences — whether to keep a prescriptive voluntary certification program or to give the Division of Substance Use general responsibility and rely on existing accreditation and rulemaking. Committee asked staff and providers to jointly propose blended language.
Lawmakers on the Senate Health & Welfare Committee spent much of their Feb. 5 hearing on S.157 parsing two competing approaches to regulating recovery residences: a voluntary certification program written into the bill and a Health Department draft that would instead add recovery residences to a division-wide oversight role.
Katie McGlenn, legislative counsel, said the bill as introduced set out a voluntary certification process with a specific list of minimum standards and annual reporting requirements, while the Health Department’s draft removes that certification section and instead lists recovery residences among the Division of Substance Use’s program responsibilities. The department’s language would leave broader oversight authority in statute without creating a prescriptive certification structure.
Department staff defended…
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