Health professionals.

New Section 1 amends Business and Professions Code Section 502 to require specific boards (Registered Nursing, Vocational Nursing, Physician Assistant, Respiratory Care) to collect workforce data from licensees at issuance and biennially, and all other healing arts boards to request such data on the same schedule. Data must be collected at the time of electronic license or registration issuance and renewal where applicable.

The Assembly version's amendment to Health and Safety Code Section 128552 (definitions for the California Physician Corps Program, described as technical and nonsubstantive) is entirely removed from the Senate version.

Workforce data fields expanded to include: anticipated year of retirement, primary and secondary area of practice, city/county/ZIP code, date of birth, educational background, gender or gender identity, hours in direct patient care (with telehealth as subcategory), inpatient hours, outpatient hours, languages spoken, National Provider Identifier, hours in direct outpatient primary care, race or ethnicity, type of employer or practice site classification, whether the licensee accepts Medicaid, whether a formal sliding fee scale is offered, work hours, sexual orientation, and disability status.

Data reporting frequency to HCAI changed from quarterly to monthly, requiring boards to provide individual licensee and registrant data on a more frequent basis.

Confidentiality provisions require boards and HCAI to maintain confidentiality of collected information and release it only in aggregate form that cannot identify an individual. Licensees cannot be required to provide the data as a condition for renewal and cannot face discipline for non-provision.

Department of Consumer Affairs, in consultation with HCAI, is tasked with specifying the exact data each board must collect or request. This specification authority is exempt from Administrative Procedure Act requirements until June 30, 2023.

HCAI is now explicitly authorized to revoke a designation of a health professional shortage area that it previously determined, adding a removal mechanism not present in the Assembly version.

New Section 3 adds legislative findings under Article I, Section 3 of the California Constitution, demonstrating the interest protected (privacy of licensees) and need for limiting public access to the collected workforce data by restricting release to aggregate form only.

The definition of 'health professional shortage area' was restructured. The first category now specifies areas 'currently' designated or recognized by HHS, making clear that only active federal designations qualify under that prong.

DHCAI's revocation authority was expanded. Previously it could only revoke designations it made itself. Now it can also revoke areas that were federally designated on January 1, 2025 (paragraph 2) or areas it determined to have a shortage (paragraph 3).

A new subdivision (h) in Section 502 requires the Medical Board of California to collect midwifery-specific workforce data from licensed midwives by April 1, 2027. This includes preceptorship eligibility, availability to supervise student midwives, practice settings (home births, birth centers, hospitals, rural settings, FQHCs), concurrent supervision capacity, and reasons for unavailability.

The midwifery data collection provisions become inoperative on June 30, 2029. DHCAI must submit a report to the Legislature by June 30, 2029 detailing findings from the midwife data.

New Sections 1.1 and 1.2 create a conditional amendment structure with SB 1271. Section 1.1 (which includes the midwifery provisions) is operative only if both bills are enacted by January 1, 2027 and AB 1811 is enacted last. Section 1.2 becomes operative on June 30, 2029 as a continuation without the midwifery provisions.

New Section 4 explains the coordination mechanism: if both AB 1811 and SB 1271 are enacted, AB 1811's Section 1 will not become operative when its Sections 1.1 and 1.2 take over.

New Section 30 of the Health and Safety Code defines 'health professional shortage area' as (1) an area designated by HHS, (2) an area designated by HHS on January 1, 2025 regardless of whether it retains that status, or (3) an area determined by the Department of Health Care Access and Information to have a shortage of health professionals.

The new definition applies 'notwithstanding any other law' across the entire Health and Safety Code and any other law or regulation, overriding existing references to federally designated shortage areas in multiple programs including the Physician Corps, Reproductive Health Services Corps, Oral Health Program, Virtual Health Hub for Rural Communities Pilot Program, and health professions planning grants.

The bill's stated purpose expanded from amending only Section 128552 (technical changes to the Physician Corps Program) to also adding and repealing Section 30, making it a broader legislative act affecting multiple health professions programs statewide.

Section 30 includes a sunset provision: it remains in effect only until January 1, 2035, and is repealed as of that date.

The definition of 'medically underserved area' in Section 128552 was updated to clean up a redundant federal citation, changing 'Part 5 of Subchapter A of Chapter 1 Section 5.2 of Title 42 of the Code of Federal Regulations' to simply 'Section 5.2 of Title 42 of the Code of Federal Regulations.'