Existing law, as part of the Mello-Granlund Older Californians Act, establishes the Office of the State Long-Term Care Ombudsman, under the direction of the State Long-Term Care Ombudsman, in the California Department of Aging. Existing law provides for the Long-Term Care Ombudsman Program under which funds are allocated to local ombudsman programs to assist elderly persons in long-term health care facilities and residential care facilities by, among other things, investigating and seeking to resolve complaints against these facilities, and providing services to assist residents in the protection of their health, safety, welfare, and rights. Under existing law, if an individual is a patient in a skilled nursing facility when a written advance health care directive is executed, the advance health care directive is not effective unless a patient advocate or ombudsman signs the advance directive as a witness, as specified. This bill would prohibit a skilled nursing facility or residential care facility from denying entry to a representative of the office acting in their official capacity, except as specified. The bill would authorize a facility, during a state of emergency, health emergency, or local health emergency to require a representative of the office entering the facility to adhere to infection control protocols for the duration of their visit that are no more stringent than those required for facility staff. The bill would make related findings and declarations.
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Existing law prohibits a business establishment from discriminating against a person because of the person's gender with respect to the price charged for services of similar or like kind. Existing law also requires specified business establishments to disclose in writing the pricing for each standard service, as defined, to display, in a specified manner, a sign stating that it is illegal to base pricing on gender and that a complete price list is available upon request, and to display, in a specified manner, a price list, and to provide the customer with a copy of the complete price list upon request. This bill would prohibit a person, firm, partnership, company, corporation, or business from charging a different price for any 2 goods that are substantially similar, as defined, if those goods are priced differently based on the gender of the individuals for whom the goods are marketed and intended. The bill would authorize the Attorney General to seek an injunction to enjoin and restrain the continuance of those violations, and would authorize the court, in addition to granting the injunction, to impose a civil penalty, as specified.
The Alfred E. Alquist Hospital Facilities Seismic Safety Act of 1983 establishes, under the jurisdiction of the Department of Health Care Access and Information, a program of seismic safety building standards for certain hospitals constructed on and after March 7, 1973. A violation of the act is a misdemeanor. The act requires an owner of a general acute care inpatient hospital, no later than January 1, 2030, to either demolish, replace, or change to nonacute care use all hospital buildings not in substantial compliance with the regulations and standards developed pursuant to the act, or seismically retrofit all acute care inpatient hospital buildings so that they are in substantial compliance with those regulations and standards. Existing law requires, within 60 days following the department's approval of a report relating to a general acute care hospital owner's plan to comply with those regulations and standards, a general acute hospital building owner to include all pertinent information regarding the building's expected earthquake performance in emergency training, response, and recovery plans, and in capital outlay plans. This bill would instead require general acute hospital building owners, commencing July 1, 2023, to take those actions annually until each of the hospital buildings owned by that owner is compliant with those regulations and standards. Existing law required the owner of an acute care inpatient hospital whose building does not substantially comply with seismic safety regulations or standards to, before January 1, 2020, submit to the department an attestation that the board of directors of that hospital is aware that the hospital building is required to meet the January 1, 2030, deadline for substantial compliance with those regulations and standards. This bill would also require, on or before January 1, 2024, and annually thereafter, the hospital owner to provide an annual status update on the Structural Performance Category ratings of the buildings and the services provided in each hospital building on the hospital campus, until compliance, to specified entities, including the department, the county board of supervisors, and the local office of emergency services or the equivalent agency. The bill would make conforming changes to related provisions. The bill would also impose various other requirements on the hospital owners and the department relating to notifying patients and the public that the hospital is not in compliance with seismic safety regulations and standards. The bill would declare the provisions of the bill to be severable. By imposing new requirements on hospital owners, the violation of which would be a misdemeanor, 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 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 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 health insurance policy that provides coverage for outpatient prescription drugs to cover medically necessary prescription drugs and subjects those policies to certain limitations on cost sharing and the placement of drugs on formularies. Existing law limits the maximum amount an enrollee or insured may be required to pay at the point of sale for a covered prescription drug to the lesser of the applicable cost-sharing amount or the retail price, and requires that payment to apply to the applicable deductible. This bill would require a health care service plan contract or health insurance policy issued, amended, delivered, or renewed on or after July 1, 2023, that provides prescription drug benefits and maintains one or more drug formularies to furnish specified information about a prescription drug upon request by an enrollee or insured, or their prescribing provider. The bill would require the plan or insurer to respond in real time to that request and ensure the information is current no later than one business day after a change is made. The bill would prohibit a health care service plan or health insurer from, among other things, restricting a prescribing provider from sharing the information furnished about the prescription drug or penalizing a provider for prescribing, administering, or ordering a lower cost or clinically appropriate alternative drug. 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.
Existing law, the Reproductive Privacy Act, provides that every individual possesses a fundamental right of privacy with respect to their personal reproductive decisions, including the fundamental right to choose to bear a child or to choose and to obtain an abortion. This bill would establish, using a $20,000,000 appropriation made in the Budget Act of 2022 for this purpose, the Los Angeles County Abortion Access Safe Haven Pilot Program for the purpose of expanding and improving access to reproductive and sexual health care, including abortion, in the County of Los Angeles. The bill would require any funds allocated for the Los Angeles County Abortion Access Safe Haven Pilot Program to be used by the County of Los Angeles or its program administrator to administer a pilot project to support innovative approaches and patient-centered collaborations to expand and improve access to sexual and reproductive health care and to maintain a financial reporting system. The bill would authorize the funds to be used for implementing recommendations from the County of Los Angeles, including building secure infrastructure, among other things. The bill would require the program administrator to determine a funding framework to prioritize funding for pilot programs and projects and to provide an annual report to the Legislature on the projects and collaborations funded by the program. The bill would exempt specified program information from public disclosure. Existing constitutional provisions require that a statute that limits the right of access to the meetings of public bodies or the writings of public officials and agencies be adopted with findings demonstrating the interest protected by the limitation and the need for protecting that interest. This bill would make legislative findings to that effect.
Existing law provides for the licensure and regulation of adult alcoholism or drug abuse recovery or treatment facilities by the State Department of Health Care Services and authorizes the department to enforce those provisions. Existing law also requires the department to require that an individual providing counseling services within a program be certified by a certifying organization approved by the department. This bill would require the department to determine the required core competencies for registered and certified counselors working within an alcoholism or drug abuse recovery and treatment program, as specified, and to consult with affected stakeholders in developing these requirements. The bill would require core competency requirements for registered and certified substance use disorder counselors to include, at a minimum, specified elements, including knowledge of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, clinical documentation, and delivery of services in the behavioral health delivery system. The bill would prohibit hour requirements for registered counselors from being lower than the hour requirements for certified peer support specialists. The bill would prohibit the department from implementing the requirements, as specified, before July 1, 2025. The bill would exempt counselors in good standing from the requirements, as specified, if certain criteria are met. The bill would require the department to implement, interpret, or make specific the changes made by the bill without regulatory action by means of all-county letters, plan letters, plan or provider bulletins, or similar instructions, and would require the department to adopt regulations to implement those changes by December 31, 2025. This bill would incorporate additional changes to Section 11833 of the Health and Safety Code proposed by AB 1860 to be operative only if this bill and AB 1860 are enacted and this bill is enacted last.
The California Constitution grants the retirement board of a public employee retirement system plenary authority and fiduciary responsibility for investment of moneys and administration of the retirement fund and system. The California Constitution qualifies this grant of powers by reserving to the Legislature the authority to prohibit investments if it is in the public interest and the prohibition satisfies standards of fiduciary care and loyalty required of a retirement board. Existing law prohibits the boards of administration of the Public Employees' Retirement System and the State Teachers' Retirement System from making investments in certain countries and in thermal coal companies, as specified, subject to the boards' plenary authority and fiduciary responsibility for investment of moneys and administration of the systems. Existing law, upon the passage of a federal law that imposes sanctions on the government of Turkey for failure to officially acknowledge its responsibility for the Armenian Genocide, prohibits the boards of administration of the Public Employees' Retirement System and the State Teachers' Retirement System from making additional or new investments, or renewing existing investments, of public employee retirement funds in an investment vehicle in the government of Turkey that is issued by the government of Turkey or that is owned by the government of Turkey. Existing law repeals the above-described prohibited investment and reporting provisions on January 1, 2025, or if a determination is made by the board, the United States Department of State, the Congress of the United States, or another appropriate federal agency that the government of Turkey has officially acknowledged its responsibility for the Armenian Genocide, whichever occurs first. This bill would change the January 1, 2025, sunset date to January 1, 2035.
Existing law establishes the California Kids Investment and Development Savings (KIDS) Program, under the administration of the Scholarshare Investment Board, for the purposes of expanding access to higher education through savings. Existing law establishes the California Kids Investment and Development Savings Program Fund in the State Treasury to serve as the initial repository of all moneys received from state and private sources for the KIDS Program, and continuously appropriates moneys in the fund to the board for the KIDS Program. Existing law, upon appropriation by the Legislature, requires the board to establish one or more Scholarshare 529 accounts and make a seed deposit of moneys from the fund into a Scholarshare 529 account established under the KIDS Program in an amount of at least $25, as determined by the board. Specifically, those moneys are deposited in KIDS Accounts, one designated for each California resident child born on or after July 1, 2022. Existing law requires the board to provide awards from these KIDS Accounts, as specified, for each recipient child's qualified higher education expenses at an eligible institution of higher education. This bill, commencing with the 2024–25 fiscal year, and upon appropriation by the Legislature, would increase the amount of seed deposits in KIDS Accounts to at least $100.
Existing law generally requires the State Department of Public Health to license and regulate clinical laboratories and various clinical laboratory personnel, and makes a violation of the provisions relating to clinical laboratories and personnel a crime. Existing law, until January 1, 2023, authorizes a person to perform a total protein test using a digital refractometer in a licensed plasma collection center if the department determines that specified conditions are met, including that the person performs the test in accordance with standardized procedures developed and approved by the center's supervising physician and surgeon or licensed clinical laboratory director and verifies the test results in a specified manner. This bill would instead require the department to determine that the person performs the test in accordance with standardized procedures approved by the center's supervising physician and surgeon or licensed clinical laboratory director, and to additionally determine that job descriptions for individuals responsible for process supervision of the total protein test include specified responsibilities. The bill would require the center to perform control procedures as specified by the manufacturer and consistent with federal regulations. The bill would delete the requirement that results be verified in a specified manner as a condition of a person being authorized to conduct a total protein test. The bill would also indefinitely extend the above-described authorization to perform a total protein test. By expanding the crime applicable to this extended authority, 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.
Existing law makes it a crime for a person to engage in a motor vehicle speed contest on a highway or an exhibition of speed on a highway, or to aid or abet therein. This bill would also make it a crime for a person to engage in a motor vehicle speed contest in an offstreet parking facility or an exhibition of speed in an offstreet parking facility, or to aid or abet therein. By expanding the definition of an existing 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.