On June 30, 2008, the state of California stopped its medical diversion program. This program was designed to protect the public from physicians with addiction problems, and simultaneously to assist physicians in achieving addiction recovery. The diversion program was widely criticized as less than effective. To address the concerns about the medical diversion program, the California legislature passed SB1441:
“SB 1441 created the Substance Abuse Coordination Committee (SACC) subject to Bagley-Keene Open Meeting Act and requires the committee, by January 1, 2010, to formulate uniform and specific standards in specified areas that each healing arts board shall use in dealing with substance-abusing licensees, whether or not a board chooses to have a formal diversion program.” quoted from http://www.dca.ca.gov/about_dca/sacc/index.shtml.
Dr. Horvath has submitted written comments to the SACC. You may read them here.
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