Report 2015-131 Recommendation 34 Responses

Report 2015-131: California's Foster Care System: The State and Counties Have Failed to Adequately Oversee the Prescription of Psychotropic Medications to Children in Foster Care (Release Date: August 2016)

Recommendation #34 To: Medical Board of California

To ensure that physicians do not inappropriately prescribe psychotropic medications to foster children, the Medical Board within 60 days should obtain and analyze the data from Health Care Services and Social Services to identify physicians who may have inappropriately prescribed psychotropic medications for foster children.

60-Day Agency Response

The Medical Board of California's (Board's) consultant has analyzed the additional data that has been requested from the Department of Health Care Services (DHCS) and the Department of Social Services (DSS) and has identified physicians who may have inappropriately prescribed psychotropic medications to foster children. The Board provided DSS with a listing of the patient de-identifiers on August 8, 2016. Per the DUA, the Board requested assistance from DSS in obtaining authorizations for medical records for these foster children. DSS is currently working on obtaining feedback from each county in order to determine the best process to get the authorizations the Board needs to continue its investigations.

California State Auditor's Assessment of 60-Day Status: Fully Implemented

All Recommendations in 2015-131

Agency responses received are posted verbatim.