Healing arts.

(1) Existing law, the Medical Practice Act, provides for the licensure and regulation of physicians and surgeons by the Medical Board of California. Existing law requires an applicant for a physician's and surgeon's certificate whose professional instruction was acquired in a country other than the United States or Canada to provide evidence satisfactory to the board of, among other things, satisfactory completion of at least one year of specified postgraduate training. This bill would require the applicant to instead complete at least 2 years of that postgraduate training. Existing law requires an applicant for a physician's and surgeon's certificate to obtain a passing score on the written examination designated by the board and makes passing scores on a written examination valid for 10 years from the month of the examination for purposes of qualification for a license. Existing law authorizes the board to extend this period of validity for good cause or for time spent in a postgraduate training program. This bill would apply this 10-year period of validity to passing scores obtained on each step of the United States Medical Licensing Examination and would also authorize the board to extend that period for an applicant who is a physician and surgeon in another state or a Canadian province and who is currently and actively practicing medicine in that state or province. Existing law requires a licensed midwife who assists in childbirths that occur in out-of-hospital settings to annually report specified information to the Office of Statewide Health Planning and Development in March and requires the office to report to the Medical Board of California licensee compliance with that requirement every April and the aggregate information collected every July. This bill would require those annual reports to be made by March 30, April 30, and July 30, respectively, and would make additional changes to the information required to be reported by a midwife with regard to cases in California. (2) Existing law provides for the licensure and regulation of speech-language pathologists, audiologists, and hearing aid dispensers by the Speech-Language Pathology and Audiology and Hearing Aid Dispensers Board. Existing law requires a licensed audiologist who wishes to sell hearing aids to meet specified licensure and examination requirements, and to apply for a dispensing audiologist certificate, pay applicable fees, and pass a board-approved hearing aid examination, except as specified. Existing law authorizes a licensed audiologist with an expired hearing aid dispenser's license to continue to sell hearing aids pursuant to his or her audiology license. This bill would require the board to issue a dispensing audiology license to a licensed audiologist who meets those requirements or whose license to sell hearing aids has expired. The bill would also waive the licensure, examination, and application requirements described above as applied to a licensed hearing aid dispenser who meets the qualifications for licensure as an audiologist. Existing law requires hearing aid dispensers and audiologists to inform a customer, in writing, that he or she should consult with a physician based upon an observation, or being informed by the customer, that certain problems of the ear exist. This bill would additionally require that written notification upon observing or being informed by the customer of pain or discomfort in the ear or of specified accumulation or a foreign body in the ear canal. (3) Existing law, the Optometry Practice Act, provides for the licensure and regulation of optometrists by the State Board of Optometry. Existing law authorizes the renewal of an expired license within 3 years after its expiration if the licensee files an application for renewal and pays all accrued and unpaid renewal fees and the delinquency fee prescribed by the board. This bill would also require the licensee to submit proof of completion of the required hours of continuing education for the last 2 years. Existing law authorizes the restoration of a license that is not renewed within 3 years after its expiration if the holder of the expired license, among other requirements, passes the clinical portion of the regular examination of applicants, or other clinical examination approved by the board, and pays a restoration fee equal to the renewal fee in effect on the last regular renewal date for licenses. This bill would instead require the holder of the expired license to take the National Board of Examiners in Optometry's Clinical Skills examination or other clinical examination approved by the board, and to also pay any delinquency fees prescribed by the board. Existing law alternatively authorizes the restoration of a license that is not renewed within 3 years after its expiration if the person provides proof that he or she holds an active license from another state, files an application for renewal, and pays the accrued and unpaid renewal fees and any delinquency fee prescribed by the board. This bill would also require the person to submit proof of completion of the required hours of continuing education for the last 2 years and take and satisfactorily pass the board's jurisprudence examination. The bill would also require that the person not have committed specified crimes or acts constituting grounds for licensure denial. (4) Existing law, the Pharmacy Law, provides for the licensure and regulation of pharmacists by the California State Board of Pharmacy and requires an applicant for a license to pass a national licensure examination and the board's jurisprudence examination. Existing law prohibits boards in the Department of Consumer Affairs from restricting an applicant who failed a licensure examination from taking the examination again, except as specified. This bill would authorize an applicant for a pharmacist license to take the licensure examination and the jurisprudence examination 4 times each. The bill would also authorize the applicant to take those examinations 4 additional times each if additional pharmacy coursework is completed, as specified. Existing law requires a facility licensed by the board to join the board's e-mail notification list within 60 days of obtaining a license or at the time of license renewal. This bill would allow an owner of 2 or more facilities to comply with the e-mail notification requirement through the use of one e-mail address under specified circumstances. Existing law requires the California State Board of Pharmacy to promulgate regulations that require, on or before January 1, 2011, a standardized, patient-centered, prescription drug label on all prescription medicine dispensed to patients in California. This bill would exempt from those standardized, prescription drug label requirements prescriptions dispensed to a patient in a health facility and administered by a licensed health care professional, as specified. (5) Existing law provides for the licensure and regulation of marriage and family therapists, licensed clinical social workers, educational psychologists, and professional clinical counselors by the Board of Behavioral Sciences. Existing law authorizes a licensed marriage and family therapist, licensed clinical social worker, or licensed educational psychologist whose license has been revoked, suspended, or placed on probation to petition the board for reinstatement or modification of the penalty, as specified. Existing law also authorizes the board to deny an application or suspend or revoke those licenses due to the revocation, suspension, or restriction by the board of a license to practice as a clinical social worker, marriage and family therapist, or educational psychologist. This bill would make those provisions apply with respect to licensed professional clinical counseling, as specified. Existing law requires an applicant applying for a marriage and family therapist license to complete a minimum of 3,000 hours of experience during a period of at least 104 weeks. Existing law requires that this experience consist of at least 500 hours of experience in diagnosing and treating couples, families, and children, and requires that an applicant be credited with 2 hours of experience for each hour of therapy provided for the first 150 hours of treating couples and families in conjoint therapy. This bill would instead require that an applicant receive that 2-hour credit for up to 150 hours of treating couples and families in conjoint therapy, and would only allow an applicant to comply with the experience requirements with hours of experience gained on and after January 1, 2010. Existing law requires an applicant for a professional clinical counselor license to complete a minimum of 3,000 hours of clinical mental health experience under the supervision of an approved supervisor and prohibits a supervisor from supervising more than 2 interns. This bill would prohibit the board from crediting an applicant for experience obtained under the supervision of a spouse or relative by blood or marriage, or a person with whom the applicant has had or currently has a personal, professional, or business relationship that undermines the authority or effectiveness of the supervision. The bill would also delete the provision prohibiting a supervisor from supervising more than 2 interns. Existing law requires an associate clinical worker or an intern to receive an average of at least one hour of direct supervisor contact for every 10 hours of client contact in each setting and authorizes an associate clinical worker or an intern working in a governmental entity, a school, college, or university, or a nonprofit and charitable institution to obtain up to 30 hours of the required weekly direct supervisor contract via two-way, real time videoconferencing. This bill would delete that 30-hour limit and would require an associate clinical worker or an intern to receive at least one additional hour of direct supervisor contact for every week in which more than 10 hours of face-to-face psychotherapy, as defined, is performed in each setting in which experience is obtained. Existing law imposes specified requirements with respect to persons who apply for a professional clinical counselor license between January 1, 2011, and June 30, 2011, inclusive. Existing law imposes specified unit requirements on applicants who hold degrees issued prior to 1996. This bill would include within those requirements specified units of supervised practicum or field study experience. Existing law imposes specified requirements with respect to persons who apply for a professional clinical counselor license between January 1, 2011, and December 31, 2013, inclusive. With respect to those applicants, existing law authorizes the board to accept experience gained outside of California if it is substantially equivalent to that required by the Licensed Professional Clinical Counselor Act and if the applicant has gained a minimum of 250 hours of supervised clinical experience in direct counseling in California while registered as an intern with the board. This bill would eliminate that 250-hour requirement with respect to persons with a counseling license in another jurisdiction, as specified, who have held that license for at least 2 years immediately prior to applying with the board. Existing law authorizes the board to refuse to issue or suspend or revoke a professional clinical counselor license or intern registration if the licensee or registrant has been guilty of unprofessional conduct, as specified. This bill would specify that unprofessional conduct includes (1) engaging in conduct that subverts a licensing examination, (2) revocation, suspension, or restriction by the board of a license to practice as a clinical social worker, educational psychologist, or marriage and family therapist, (3) conduct in the supervision of an associate clinical social worker that violates the profession's governing professional clinical counseling or regulations of the board, and (4) failing to comply with required procedures when delivering health care via telemedicine. The bill would make other technical, nonsubstantive changes in various provisions governing the healing arts and would delete certain obsolete and duplicative language. (6) This bill would incorporate additional changes in Section 2177 of the Business and Professions Code proposed by SB 1410, to be operative if SB 1410 and this bill become effective on or before January 1, 2011, and this bill is enacted last. (7) This bill would incorporate additional changes in Section 2570.19 of the Business and Professions Code proposed by SB 294 and SB 999, to be operative if SB 294 and SB 999, or either of them, and this bill become effective on or before January 1, 2011, and this bill is enacted last. (8) This bill would incorporate additional changes in Section 4980.43 of the Business and Professions Code proposed by AB 2435, to be operative if AB 2435 and this bill become effective on or before January 1, 2011, and this bill is enacted last. (9) This bill would incorporate additional changes in Section 4996.17 of the Business and Professions Code proposed by AB 2167, to be operative if AB 2167 and this bill become effective on or before January 1, 2011, and this bill is enacted last.