Existing law establishes the State Department of Public Health and sets forth its powers and duties, including the administration of provisions relating to the prevention and control of communicable diseases. Existing regulations require certain communicable diseases to be reported to local health officers by health providers, using a uniform Confidential Morbidity Report (CMR) . Existing law, the Information Practices Act of 1977, regulates the collection and disclosure of personal information regarding individuals by state agencies, except as specified. Under existing law, a person who willfully requests or obtains a record containing personal information from an agency under false pretenses or a person who intentionally discloses medical, psychiatric, or psychological information held by an agency is guilty of a misdemeanor. This bill would require the department to create a program to provide expedited release, during a declared public health emergency, of specified health care data to researchers at a bona fide research institution of higher education, as defined. The bill would require the department to make the specified data available promptly, and on an ongoing basis, only to qualified researchers who sign a memorandum of understanding (MOU) with the department agreeing to use the data only for public health research purposes, to not disclose it to any other party, and to keep all personal information confidential. The bill would require each individual researcher who accesses or obtains nonpublic personal data through the program to sign an MOU, and would make a violation of the MOU a misdemeanor under the Information Practices Act of 1977. Because a willful violation of an MOU would be a crime, the bill would impose a state-mandated local program. The bill would require the department, within one business day of agreeing to an MOU, to publish the MOU in full and make it available, along with specified information, to the general public on its internet website. The bill would require the program to create a special Institutional Review Board to review requests submitted under the program and would require the program to approve or reject the requests within 15 days of receiving a completed application. This bill would also require that any report of a communicable respiratory disease by a health care provider to a local health officer and any electronic tool used by a local health officer for the purposes of reporting cases of a communicable respiratory disease include information on the type of housing where the patient resides, the number of people in the patient's household, the occupation and workplace of the patient, and a relevant travel history based on the disease course. The bill would make implementation of its provisions subject to an appropriation by the Legislature. To the extent that this bill would increase the duties of local health officers, the bill would impose a state-mandated local program. The California Constitution requires the state to reimburse local agencies and school districts for certain costs mandated by the state. Statutory provisions establish procedures for making that reimbursement. This bill would provide that with regard to certain mandates no reimbursement is required by this act for a specified reason. With regard to any other mandates, this bill would provide that, if the Commission on State Mandates determines that the bill contains costs so mandated by the state, reimbursement for those costs shall be made pursuant to the statutory provisions noted above.
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Existing law requires, by July 1, 2017, and every 3 years thereafter, the Natural Resources Agency to update, as prescribed, the state's climate adaptation strategy, known as the Safeguarding California Plan. Existing law establishes the Office of Planning and Research in state government in the Governor's office. Existing law establishes the Integrated Climate Adaptation and Resiliency Program to be administered by the office to coordinate regional and local efforts with state climate adaptation strategies to adapt to the impacts of climate change, as prescribed. This bill would authorize eligible entities, as defined, to establish and participate in a regional climate network, as defined. The bill would require the office, through the program, to encourage the inclusion of eligible entities with land use planning and hazard mitigation planning authority into regional climate networks. The bill would authorize a regional climate network to engage in activities to address climate change, as specified. This bill would require a regional climate network to develop a regional climate adaptation and resilience action plan and to submit the plan to the office for review, comments, and certification, as described. The bill would require, on or before January 1, 2023, the office, through the program, to develop and publish on its internet website guidelines on how eligible entities may establish regional climate networks and how governing boards may be established within regional climate networks. The bill would also require, on or before July 1, 2023, the office, through the program, in collaboration with the Office of Emergency Services, to develop and publish on its internet website guidelines, as prescribed, establishing standards and required content for a regional climate adaptation and resilience action plan, including certain information, analyses, and contents to be included in a plan and certain considerations and procedures for a regional climate network when preparing a plan. This bill would require the office, through the program, to provide technical assistance to regions seeking to establish a regional climate network and to regional climate networks in developing regional climate adaptation and resilience action plans. The bill would require, on or before January 1, 2025, the office, in consultation with the Office of Emergency Services, to make recommendations to certain policy and budget committees of the Legislature related to regional adaptation and resilience on expanding state support for the work of regional climate networks, as prescribed, and the potential sources of financial assistance and options for distributing state funds to support the creation and implementation of regional climate adaptation and resilience action plans and to support technical assistance and capacity building to engage vulnerable communities and under-resourced communities in the development of the plans.
Existing law, the Knox-Keene Health Care Service Plan Act of 1975, provides for the licensure and regulation of health care service plans by the Department of Managed Health Care and makes a willful violation of the act's requirements a crime. Existing law provides for the regulation of health insurers by the Department of Insurance. Existing law requires a health care service plan contract or disability insurance policy issued, amended, delivered, or renewed on or after January 1, 2000, that covers prescription benefits to include coverage for insulin, if it is determined to be medically necessary. This bill would prohibit a health care service plan contract or a health disability insurance policy, as specified, issued, amended, delivered, or renewed on or after January 1, 2022, from imposing a deductible on an insulin prescription drug, except as specified for a high deductible health plan, as defined. Because a willful violation of these provisions by a health care service plan would be a crime, the bill would impose a state-mandated local program. The California Constitution requires the state to reimburse local agencies and school districts for certain costs mandated by the state. Statutory provisions establish procedures for making that reimbursement. This bill would provide that no reimbursement is required by this act for a specified reason.
This measure would commemorate the 50th anniversary of the federal Wild Free-Roaming Horses and Burros Act of 1971. The measure would additionally urge the federal administration to immediately declare a moratorium on all further wild horse and burro roundups, to establish management of these animals informed by independent science and the American public, and to restore a thriving ecological balance to California wild horse and burro areas and territories.