Disability benefits: certificates.

Document formatting changed from amended assembly layout (with line numbers and '97' page markers) to enrolled bill layout (with '96' page markers, passage dates, and governor's approval block). No changes to the statutory text of Section 2708.

Removed the amendment to Government Code Section 19261, which would have made nonsubstantive changes to provisions about the Department of Human Resources establishing health and safety standards in state agencies. The bill now focuses solely on unemployment insurance disability benefit certificates.

Added new subsection (h)(3) providing that the prohibition on administrative fees does not prevent a physician or practitioner from billing for medical services provided in connection with an examination, or from collecting any applicable copayment, coinsurance, or deductible, if those charges are consistent with charges for a comparable medical examination or service and are not imposed solely for completing a certificate or form required by the section.

Removed the operative date provision that stated 'This section shall become operative on July 1, 2014,' which had been attached to the fee prohibition provisions in the prior version.

The bill now amends Section 2708 of the Unemployment Insurance Code in addition to its original amendment to Section 19261 of the Government Code, expanding from a purely technical fix to include substantive disability benefits policy.

A new subsection (h)(1) prohibits a physician or practitioner from charging a person an administrative fee to complete a form for a certificate required under Section 2708 (the medical eligibility certificate for unemployment disability benefits).

A new subsection (h)(2) prohibits a physician or practitioner from charging an administrative fee for a subsequent recertification examination or for completing a form required to maintain continued eligibility for disability benefits.

The original nonsubstantive changes to Section 19261 of the Government Code (updating 'he or she' to 'they' in the religious exemption from physical examination) are retained but renumbered as Section 2 of the bill.