Healing arts.

(1) Existing law, the Dental Practice Act, provides for the licensure and regulation of dentists and dental assistants by the Dental Board of California and authorizes the board to appoint an executive officer to exercise powers and perform duties delegated by the board to the executive officer. The act requires the Governor, the Senate Committee on Rules, and the Speaker of the Assembly to appoint specified members of the board, and authorizes the Governor to remove a member of the board from office at any time for continued neglect of duty, incompetency, or unprofessional or dishonorable conduct. These provisions are in effect only until January 1, 2020, and, upon repeal of those provisions, the board will be subject to review by the appropriate policy committees of the Legislature. This bill would instead authorize the appointing authority to remove from office at any time a member of the board appointed by that authority for the reasons specified above. The bill would revise and recast additional provisions relating to administration of the act, and would extend the provisions relating to the Dental Board of California and the executive officer to January 1, 2024. The Dental Practice Act requires the board to approve foreign dental schools based on specified standards. Existing law requires a foreign dental school seeking approval to submit an application to the board, including, among other things, a finding that the educational program of the foreign dental school is equivalent to that of similar accredited institutions in the United States and adequately prepares its students for the practice of dentistry. Existing law requires the foreign dental school to submit a specified registration fee and to pay the board's reasonable costs and expenses to conduct an approval survey. Existing law requires an approved institution to submit a renewal application every 7 years and to pay a specified renewal fee. This bill, beginning January 1, 2020, would prohibit the board from accepting new applications for approval of foreign dental schools and would instead require foreign dental schools seeking approval to complete the international consultative and accreditation process with the Commission on Dental Accreditation of the American Dental Association (CODA) or a comparable accrediting body approved by the board. The bill would require previously approved foreign dental schools to complete the CODA accreditation by January 1, 2024, to remain approved. The Dental Practice Act requires an applicant for licensure under the act to furnish fingerprint cards for submission to state and federal criminal justice agencies to determine, among other things, whether the applicant has a record of any criminal convictions in the state or in any other jurisdiction. This bill would require the board to require an applicant for licensure under the act to additionally furnish finger prints for the purposes of conducting a background check, and would authorize the applicant to submit a copy of a completed Live Scan form instead of fingerprint cards for specified purposes. The bill would require the board to request subsequent arrest notification service for all applicants. The bill would also require an applicant for licensure to practice dentistry to furnish a signed release allowing disclosure of information from the National Practitioner Data Bank and verification of registration status with the federal Drug Enforcement Administration within the United States Department of Justice for specified purposes. The Dental Practice Act requires each applicant for a license to practice dentistry in the state to meet various requirements, including successfully completing an examination to test the fitness of the applicant to practice dentistry. This bill would revise various provisions relating to the requirements for licensure to practice dentistry in the state, including requiring the examination to assess competency in the areas of diagnosis, treatment planning, and restorative, endodontic, periodontic, and prosthetic dentistry, and requiring specified advanced education programs to be completed within 2 years of the date of application for licensure. The Dental Practice Act requires an applicant for licensure as a registered dental assistant to meet specified eligibility requirements, such as satisfactory performance on a written examination in law and ethics, and to provide evidence of successful completion of specified board-approved courses, including courses in radiation safety and coronal polishing. This bill would instead require satisfactory performance on the Registered Dental Assistant Combined Written and Law and Ethics Examination, and would require an applicant to additionally provide evidence of successful completion of board-approved courses in infection control, the Dental Practice Act, and basic life support. The Dental Practice Act specifies unprofessional conduct by a licensee to include, among other things, the violation of any provisions of the act. Existing law authorizes the board to discipline a licensee under the act by placing the licensee on probation under various specified terms and conditions. Existing law requires a licensed dentist engaged in the practice of dentistry to provide specified notice to each patient of the fact that the dentist is licensed and regulated by the board. Existing law requires the notice to be posted in a conspicuous location accessible to public view, as specified. This bill would provide that the failure by the treating dentist to review diagnostic digital or conventional radiographs for orthodontia prior to the initial diagnosis and correction of malpositions of human teeth or the initial use of orthodontic appliances is unprofessional conduct under the act. The bill would require an individual, partnership, corporation, or other entity providing dental services through telehealth to make available the name, telephone number, practice address, and California state license number of any dentist who will be involved in the provision of services to a patient, and would require a violation of that provision to constitute unprofessional conduct. The bill would prohibit a provider of dental services from requiring a patient to sign an agreement limiting the patient's ability to file a complaint with the board. This bill would also require a licensee whose license is placed on probation on and after July 1, 2020, to provide a patient with a specified disclosure before the patient's first visit following the probationary order, and would require the licensee to obtain a separate, signed copy of the disclosure, unless an exception applies. The bill would require the board to provide specified probation information on a licensee's profile on the board's internet website. The Dental Practice Act establishes the State Dentistry Fund and requires that specified fees and fines be paid into that fund, and provides that the funds, unless otherwise provided, be available, upon appropriation, to the board for specified purposes. The act also establishes the State Dental Assistant Fund and requires that specified fees be paid into that fund, and provides that the fund be available, upon appropriation, to the board for the purposes of administering provisions relating to dental assistants, registered dental assistants, registered dental assistants in extended functions, dental sedation assistant permitholders, and orthodontic assistant permitholders. This bill would abolish the State Dental Assistant Fund on July 1, 2022, and would require that any moneys in that fund be transferred to the State Dentistry Fund before July 1, 2022. The bill would make various related conforming changes. (2) Existing law requires an applicant for a physician's and surgeon's license to complete, among other things, 36 months of postgraduate training approved by the California Medical Board, including 4 months of general medicine training obtained in specified postgraduate training programs. Existing law authorizes an applicant who completes 24 of the 36 months as a resident after receiving a medical degree from a combined dental and medical degree program accredited by the Commission on Dental Accreditation or approved by the board to be eligible for licensure. This bill would specify that the 24 months of postgraduate training as a resident described above must be part of an oral and maxillofacial surgery postgraduate training program, and would exempt these applicants from completing the 4 months of postgraduate training in general medicine. (3) Existing law defines "telehealth" as the mode of delivering health care services and public health via information and communication technologies to facilitate the diagnosis, consultation, treatment, education, care management, and self-management of a patient's health care while the patient is at the originating site and the health care provider is at a distant site. "Health care provider" is defined for these purposes as a person who is licensed under specified provisions of law relating to healing arts. Existing law requires health care providers using telehealth to comply with specified provisions, including informing the patient about the use of telehealth and obtaining verbal or written consent from the patient for the use of telehealth prior to the delivery of health care services via telehealth, and makes a violation of these provisions unprofessional conduct. This bill would specify that all laws and regulations governing professional responsibility, unprofessional conduct, and standards of practice shall apply to health care providers who provide telehealth services. (4) This bill would make other conforming and nonsubstantive changes, including replacing gendered terms with nongendered terms, updating cross-references, and deleting obsolete provisions. (5) This bill would incorporate additional changes to Section 144 of the Business and Professions Code proposed by AB 496 and SB 608 to be operative only if this bill and AB 496 or SB 608, or both, are enacted and this bill is enacted last. This bill would incorporate additional changes to Section 205 of the Business and Professions Code proposed by AB 896 to be operative only if this bill and AB 896 are enacted and this bill is enacted last. This bill would incorporate additional changes to Section 2290.5 of the Business and Professions Code proposed by AB 744 to be operative only if this bill and AB 744 are enacted and this bill is enacted last.