American Addiction Treatment Association to Host a Program on the Present and Future of Land Use Regulation Within the Addiction Treatment Industry, Legal Tensions
Los Angeles, CA (PRWEB) July 21, 2016 -- The American Addiction Treatment Association (AATA) announces that it will host a three hour program on July 27th in Los Angeles, CA that will focus on recent litigation, legislation and newer local ordinances affecting residential addiction treatment programs and sober living facilities. The seminar will offer an understanding of the rights and issues of those working within, owning, and operating industry programs and facilities in addition to offering practical, actionable steps for compliance.
For over 25 years, the federal Fair Housing Act and Americans with Disabilities Act have protected small (six-or-fewer) residential addiction treatment programs and sober living facilities housing clients in outpatient programs from local land use oversight. These legal protections have been recognized by federal and state government and courts as essential to preventing NIMBY-based discrimination against recovering addicts and providing needed access to care. In recent years, there has been an increasingly serious backlash, advocating that addiction treatment programs have proliferated and become a nuisance requiring greater state regulation, the empowerment of local zoning authorities, and more limitation on multi-site operators. The “pendulum swing” is highly concerning to many in the industry based on the anticipated constraints and restrictions on growth in a time of insufficient access to meet the need for addiction treatment. It is also destabilizing to operators, investors, and prospective acquirers uncertain about how industry land use regulation is likely to evolve. Questions and concerns revolve around the regulatory and legal efforts to restrict programs, the prospects for constitutional and legal challenges to the new laws and the implications for owners, operators, and investors of these facilities and programs.
Harry Nelson and Zach Rothenberg of Nelson Hardiman will present on recent legislative trends and legal protections for small residential treatment, sober living, and transitional living facilities as well as review the constitutionality and legal challenges of legislative land use restrictions including precedents and recent legal battles. “With opponents to sober living homes perhaps more vocal than ever, it’s important to have a resource and experts who are uniquely aware of the current legal challenges of the industry, as well as the direction it’s heading,” stated Gina Meyer, Executive Director of the American Addiction Treatment Association.
The program will be from 9am-1pm on July 27th in the conference facilities at Nelson Hardiman, LLP in Los Angeles. For more information or to register call (888) 958-2282 or click HERE. In addition to the program, there will be time for the attendees to speak with the presenters and network with their peers over lunch.
Nelson Hardiman, LLP attorneys Harry Nelson and Zachary Rothenberg advise a national clientele of addiction treatment providers and other behavioral healthcare organizations on regulatory compliance. With deep experience representing residential and outpatient treatment centers, sober living and extended care, and mental health facilities and professionals, they offer strategic advice on business strategy, risk management, and a wide range of licensing, operational, and reimbursement issues.
The American Addiction Treatment Association (AATA) is a national trade association for owners and operators of facilities and programs that serve the addiction recovery community that include substance abuse treatment programs, sober and transitional living facilities, residential, and outpatient programs. AATA fills a void in the recovery and addiction treatment industry by providing essential legal and regulatory compliance resources, including state-by-state requirements for licensing and certification, operations, reimbursement, and risk management. In addition, AATA addresses timely compliance risks related to reimbursement, including billing, coding, and documentation issues specific to addiction treatment.
Gina Meyer, American Addiction Treatment Association, http://www.addiction-tx.com, +1 2604317100, [email protected]
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