Asm. Joaquin Arambula

Existing law provides for the licensure and regulation of health facilities, including among others, skilled nursing facilities and intermediate care facilities, by the State Department of Public Health. Existing law makes it a misdemeanor for any person to willfully or repeatedly violate the provisions governing the licensure and regulation of health facilities. This bill would authorize a skilled nursing facility or intermediate care facility to adopt a feeding assistant training program and would require the department to approve a feeding assistant training program for facilities to adopt that meets specified requirements. The bill would require skilled nursing facilities and intermediate care facilities that utilize feeding assistants to comply with certain requirements, including that a feeding assistant only provide dining assistance for residents who have no complicated feeding problems. The bill would also specify that hours of care provided by a feeding assistant may be used in determining whether a facility satisfies direct care service hour, or nursing hour, per patient day requirements. By expanding the scope of a crime, this 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.

Existing law, the California Suicide Prevention Act of 2000, allows the State Department of Health Care Services, contingent upon appropriation, to establish and implement a suicide prevention, education, and gatekeeper training program to reduce the severity, duration, and incidence of suicidal behaviors. Existing law authorizes the State Department of Public Health to establish the Office of Suicide Prevention to, among other things, convene experts and stakeholders, including, but not limited to, stakeholders representing populations with high rates of suicide, to encourage collaboration and coordination of resources for suicide prevention. This bill would require the department to establish an Ending Military Suicide Task Force to systematically reduce military suicides and to develop a plan to eliminate all military suicides in the state, as specified. Commencing June 1, 2023, the bill would require the task force to submit a specified report to the Governor and the Legislature on the state of veteran suicide prevention, as specified, including, among other things, an analysis of the plans, activities, strategies, and programs undertaken pursuant to the task force's recommendations and their effects on reducing military suicides in the state.

Existing law provides for the Medi-Cal program, which is administered by the State Department of Health Care Services, under which qualified low-income individuals receive health care services, including enteral nutrition products, pursuant to a schedule of benefits, and subject to utilization controls, such as prior authorization. The Medi-Cal program is, in part, governed and funded by federal Medicaid program provisions. Existing law requires the department to establish a Medically Tailored Meals Pilot Program to operate for a period of 4 years from the date the program is established, or until funding is no longer available, whichever date is earlier, in specified counties, including the Counties of Alameda and Sonoma, to provide medically tailored meal intervention services to Medi-Cal participants with specified health conditions, such as diabetes and renal disease. This bill would require the department to establish, no earlier than January 1, 2022, a pilot program for a 2-year period in the Counties of Alameda, Fresno, and San Bernardino to provide food prescriptions to eligible Medi-Cal beneficiaries, including individuals who have a specified chronic health condition, such as Type 2 diabetes and hypertension, when utilizing evidence-based practices that demonstrate the prevention, treatment, or reversal of those specified diseases. The bill would authorize the department, in consultation with stakeholders, to establish utilization controls, including the limitation on food prescriptions, and to enter into contracts for purposes of implementing the pilot program. The bill would require a Medi-Cal managed care plan or their contractor that participates in the pilot program to establish procedures for referring and enrolling eligible Medi-Cal beneficiaries in the pilot program. The bill would require the department to evaluate the pilot program upon its conclusion, to report to the Legislature on those findings, and to implement these provisions by various means, including provider bulletins, without taking regulatory action. The bill would repeal these provisions on January 1, 2027. This bill would make legislative findings and declarations as to the necessity of a special statute for the Counties of Alameda, Fresno, and San Bernardino.

Existing state sales and use tax laws impose a tax on retailers measured by the gross receipts from the sale of tangible personal property sold at retail in this state or on the storage, use, or other consumption in this state of tangible personal property purchased from a retailer for storage, use, or other consumption in this state. The Sales and Use Tax Law provides various exemptions from those taxes, including an exemption for the sale of, or the storage, use, or consumption of, any container used to collect or store human whole blood, plasma, blood products, or blood derivatives. This bill, on and after January 1, 2023, and before January 1, 2028, would exempt the gross receipts from the sale in this state of, and the storage, use, or other consumption in this state of, any reagents or chemicals, and lab equipment and supplies, used by a licensed nonhospital blood bank to perform blood screening tests on donated human blood. Existing law requires a bill that would authorize a new tax expenditure under the Sales and Use Tax Law to identify specific goals, purposes, and objectives that the tax expenditure will achieve, and detailed performance indicators and data collection requirements for determining whether the tax expenditure achieves these goals, purposes, and objectives. This bill would include additional information required for any bill authorizing a new tax expenditure. The Bradley-Burns Uniform Local Sales and Use Tax Law authorizes counties and cities to impose local sales and use taxes in conformity with the Sales and Use Tax Law, and existing laws authorize districts, as specified, to impose transactions and use taxes in accordance with the Transactions and Use Tax Law, which generally conforms to the Sales and Use Tax Law. Amendments to the Sales and Use Tax Law are automatically incorporated into the local tax laws. Existing law requires the state to reimburse counties and cities for revenue losses caused by the enactment of sales and use tax exemptions. This bill would provide that, notwithstanding Section 2230 of the Revenue and Taxation Code, no appropriation is made and the state shall not reimburse any local agencies for sales and use tax revenues lost by them pursuant to this bill. This bill would take effect immediately as a tax levy.

(1) Existing law, subject to an annual appropriation in the annual Budget Act, requires the Department of Housing and Community Development to provide funding to counties for allocation to child welfare services agencies to help young adults who are 18 to 24 years of age secure and maintain housing, with priority given to young adults formerly in the state's foster care or probation systems. Existing law suspends this program on December 31, 2021, unless the Department of Finance makes a specified finding. This bill would delete the provisions conditionally suspending that program and subjecting the requirements of the program to an annual appropriation in the Budget Act. The bill would appropriate $8,000,000 annually to fund that program and require the department to allocate and distribute the funds no later than October 1, 2022, and no later than October 1 of each year thereafter. The bill would require a child welfare agency that accepts a distribution of over $10,000 to ensure that data on the demographics and characteristics of those served by the program is entered into the relevant local homeless management information system, as defined. The bill would also require a child welfare agency that accepts any distribution of money to report specified information to the Department of Housing and Community Development on an annual basis. (2) Existing law, the Budget Act of 2019, appropriated $5,000,000 to the Department of Housing and Community Development to allocate to counties for the support of housing navigators to help young adults 18 to 21 years of age, inclusive, secure and maintain housing, with priority given to young adults in the foster care system. This bill would appropriate $5,000,000 annually to the department to allocate and distribute to counties to continue that housing navigator program and require the department to allocate and distribute the funds no later than October 1, 2022, and no later than October 1 of each year thereafter. The bill would require a child welfare agency that accepts a distribution of over $10,000 to ensure that data on the demographics and characteristics of those served by the program is entered into the relevant local homeless management information system, as defined. The bill would also require a child welfare agency that accepts any distribution of money to report specified information to the Department of Housing and Community Development on an annual basis. (3) Existing law establishes the Transitional Housing Placement-Plus program, which provides transitional housing for former foster youth who are at least 18 years of age and, except as specified, not more than 24 years of age. Existing law provides for the establishment of rates to be paid to providers of transitional housing. This bill would establish the THP-Plus Housing Supplement Program, subject to an appropriation in the Budget Act, to supplement the rates paid to Transitional Housing Placement-Plus providers in up to 11 counties. The bill would specify that a county is eligible to receive this supplemental funding if the fair market rent for a 2-bedroom apartment in the county is one of the 11 most expensive in the state during the 2020–21 federal fiscal year. The bill would specify requirements for counties that elect to receive this funding, including, among others, that the county maintain the bed capacity for the Transitional Housing Program-Plus program that the county contracted for in the 2020–21 fiscal year. The bill would also prescribe the method of calculating the amount of supplemental funding a county receives pursuant to this program. (4) Existing law requires the State Department of Social Services to select and award a grant to a private nonprofit or public entity for the purpose of establishing a statewide multipurpose child welfare training program. Existing law requires the training to provide practice-relevant training to county child protective services social workers who screen referrals for child abuse or neglect and for all workers assigned to provide emergency response, family maintenance, family reunification, and permanent placement services. Existing law requires the training to include specified components, including, among others, use of community resources. This bill would also require the training to include, for social workers and probation officers that serve nonminor dependents, an overview of the housing resources available through the local coordinated entry system, homeless continuum of care, and county public agencies.

Existing law, the Economic Revitalization Act, establishes the Governor's Office of Business and Economic Development, also known as "GO-Biz," in state government within the Governor's office under the control of a director. The act requires GO-Biz to serve as the Governor's lead entity for economic strategy and the marketing of California on issues relating to business development, private sector investment, and economic growth. This bill would establish the Online Jobs and Economic Support Resource Grant Program within GO-Biz for the purpose of supporting inclusive, cross-jurisdictional, and innovative online platforms that support job and earning opportunities and economic recovery with a strong focus on underserved and economically challenged communities. This bill would require an eligible applicant, which shall be a nonprofit, a cooperative, public benefit corporation, or a local government, to meet specified requirements, including, among other things, maintenance of an online platform that connects users with economic opportunities, training programs, and services. The bill would require GO-Biz, upon appropriation of funds by the Legislature, to issue grants to qualified online platforms based on a process for the awarding of competitive grants to eligible applicants that requires submission of a proposal narrative, a proposed budget, evidence of demonstrated experience in working with the proposed target populations, and a proposed impact assessment and timeline that includes progress reports and final deliverables. The bill would require grant recipients to submit an annual report to GO-Biz on how it used the grant funding that it was issued.

Existing law requires the driver of a vehicle involved in an accident resulting in injury to a person, other than that driver, or in the death of a person to immediately stop the vehicle at the scene of the accident and provide specified personal information to the injured person or the occupants of the other vehicle and to any traffic or police officer at the scene of the accident. Under existing law, if a vehicle accident results in permanent, serious injury or death, a person who violates the requirement to stop is subject to punishment by imprisonment in the state prison for 2, 3, or 4 years, or in a county jail for not less than 90 days nor more than one year, or by a specified fine, or both the imprisonment and fine. Existing law authorizes the court, in the interests of justice and for other reasons stated in the record, to reduce or eliminate the minimum imprisonment or fine requirements. This bill would instead make a person who fails to immediately stop, as required, at the scene of an accident that resulted in a permanent, serious injury subject to punishment by imprisonment in the state prison for 2, 3, or 4 years, or in a county jail for not less than 90 days nor more than one year, and a specified fine, and if the accident resulted in death, the violation of those requirements would be punishable by imprisonment in the state prison for 3, 4, or 6 years, or in a county jail for not less than 90 days nor more than one year, and a specified fine.

Existing law establishes the Advance Health Care Directive Registry allowing individuals to register a written advance health care directive with the Secretary of State. The information in the registry is accessible by specified entities, upon request. Under existing law, an electronic health care directive or power of attorney for health care is legally sufficient if it contains the date of its execution, is signed by either the patient or in the patient's name by another adult in the patient's presence and at the patient's direction, and is either acknowledged before a notary public or signed by at least 2 witnesses who satisfy specified requirements. Under existing law, the signatures required can be by a digital signature, as defined. Existing law defines a request regarding resuscitative measures as a written document, signed by an individual with capacity, or a legally recognized health care decisionmaker, and the individual's physician, directing a health care provider regarding resuscitative measures. Existing law defines a Physician Orders for Life Sustaining Treatment form, which is commonly referred to as a POLST form, and provides that a request regarding resuscitative measures includes a POLST form. Existing law requires that a POLST form and the medical intervention and procedures offered by the form be explained by a health care provider. Existing law distinguishes a request regarding resuscitative measures from an advance health care directive. Under existing law, an advance care directive or substantially similar instrument executed in another state or jurisdiction is valid and enforceable to the same extent as an advance care directive validly executed in this state, as specified, and authorizes a physician or other health care provider to presume that an advance care directive or similar document is valid in the absence of knowledge to the contrary. This bill would establish similar provisions relating to the validity and enforceability of POLST forms and would allow an electronic signature to be used for the purposes of an advance health care directive and POLST form. The bill would enact the California POLST eRegistry Act, which would require the California Health and Human Services Agency to create a statewide electronic POLST registry system for the purpose of collecting a patient's POLST information received from a health care provider or the provider's designee and disseminating the information therein to an authorized user, as defined. The bill would require the agency to promulgate regulations necessary for the operation of the POLST eRegistry, as specified, and set timelines for implementation. The bill would allow an electronic representation of a POLST form and the electronic communication of the information contained in a POLST form to have the same legal standing as a paper hardcopy of a POLST form.

The Rechargeable Battery Recycling Act of 2006 requires every retailer, as defined, to have in place a system for the acceptance and collection of used rechargeable batteries, defined to include lithium-ion batteries, for reuse, recycling, or proper disposal. The act requires the system for the acceptance and collection of used rechargeable batteries to include, at a minimum, specified elements, including, among others, the take-back of a used rechargeable battery at no cost to the consumer. The hazardous waste control laws, among other things, authorize the Department of Toxic Substances Control to regulate the generation and disposal of hazardous waste. Existing law prohibits a person from intentionally disposing of or causing the disposal of a hazardous or extremely hazardous waste at a point not authorized by the hazardous waste control laws, as provided. Under existing department-adopted regulations, specified hazardous wastes, including certain batteries, are designated as "universal waste" and are regulated separately pursuant to universal waste management provisions. This bill would prohibit a person from knowingly disposing of a lithium-ion battery in a container or receptacle that is intended for the collection of solid waste or recyclable materials, unless the container or receptacle is designated for the collection of batteries for recycling pursuant to specified laws. The bill would require the Department of Resources Recycling and Recovery, on or before July 1, 2024, and in consultation with the Department of Toxic Substances Control, to develop a guidance document for use by local governments to better inform, educate, and increase public awareness regarding the proper handling and disposal of lithium-ion batteries and products that contain lithium-ion batteries, as provided. The bill would authorize the Department of Resources Recycling and Recovery, in carrying out that requirement, to solicit and use any expertise available in other state agencies and would authorize the department to convene a specified working group to advise on the content, development, and promotion of the guidance document. The bill would require the Department of Forestry and Fire Protection, before January 1, 2023, in consultation with relevant state agencies and stakeholders, to develop a model protocol that identifies best practices for the detection, safe handling, and suppression of fires that originate from discarded lithium-ion batteries or products that contain lithium-ion batteries on or in solid waste or recycling collection vehicles, transfer or processing stations, or disposal facilities, as provided. The bill would require a solid waste enterprise, before July 1, 2023, after consulting with the county fire marshal of every county in which the solid waste enterprise conducts solid waste collection operations, to adopt, or update if necessary, a protocol and arrange any necessary training for relevant employees that identifies procedures to follow under those same circumstances. By imposing new duties on county fire marshals, 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, if the Commission on State Mandates determines that the bill contains costs mandated by the state, reimbursement for those costs shall be made pursuant to the statutory provisions noted above.

Existing law, the Licensed Marriage and Family Therapist Act, provides for the licensure, registration, and regulation of marriage and family therapists and associate marriage and family therapists by the Board of Behavioral Sciences. The Social Work Licensing Law provides for the licensure, registration, and regulation of clinical social workers and associate clinical social workers by the board. The Licensed Professional Clinical Counselor Act provides for the licensure, registration, and regulation of professional clinical counselors and associate professional clinical counselors by the board. A violation of these provisions is a crime. Existing law makes the above-described acts and that law inapplicable to an unlicensed or unregistered employee or volunteer working in a governmental entity, a school, a college, a university, or an institution that is both nonprofit and charitable if, among other things, the work is performed solely under the supervision of the entity. This bill would instead require the work of the employee or volunteer to be performed under the oversight and direction of the entity. The bill would define the term "nonexempt setting" for purposes of the acts and that law. The bill would also provide that a person who holds a valid license or registration who is working or volunteering in an exempt setting is not exempt from the provisions of the applicable act and that law, and that an entity that is licensed or certified by a government regulatory agency to provide health care services is not an exempt setting, except as specified. Existing law prohibits an applicant for licensure in one of the above-described professions from being employed or volunteering in a private practice until the applicant has been issued an associate registration by the applicable board. Existing law requires supervised experience that is obtained for the purpose of qualifying for licensure to be related to the practice of professional clinical counseling and comply with specified requirements, including by requiring at least 150 hours of clinical experience in a hospital or community mental health setting, as defined. Existing law also prohibits a trainee gaining supervisory hours from performing services in a private practice. This bill would also prohibit an applicant from being employed or volunteering in a professional corporation, as defined, and would prohibit specified trainees gaining supervisory hours from performing services in a professional corporation. The bill would eliminate the licensure requirement of completing at least 150 hours of clinical experience in a hospital or community mental health setting. Existing law requires a person with an associate registration to have direct supervisor contact, as specified, and authorizes a supervisor to supervise a maximum of 3 persons. This bill would authorize the associate to be supervised by a person who, among other things, has access to the associate's clinic records, in lieu of the supervisor providing psychotherapeutic services to clients of the associate's employer and would increase the maximum number of persons a supervisor may supervise to 6 persons. This bill would make conforming and other nonsubstantive changes. Because the bill would expand the scope of 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 bill would incorporate additional changes to Sections 4980.01, 4980.43.3, 4996.14, and 4999.22 of the Business and Professions Code proposed by SB 801 to be operative only if this bill and SB 801 are enacted and this bill is enacted last.