Existing law, the Medical Practice Act, restricts the employment of licensed physicians and surgeons and podiatrists by a corporation or other artificial legal entity, subject to specified exemptions, and makes it a crime to practice medicine without a license. Existing law establishes, until January 1, 2011, a pilot project to allow qualified district hospitals that, among other things, provide more than 50% of patient days to the care of Medicare, Medi-Cal, and uninsured patients, to employ a physician and surgeon, if the hospital does not interfere with, control, or otherwise direct the professional judgment of the physician and surgeon. The pilot project authorizes the direct employment of a total of 20 physicians and surgeons by those hospitals to provide medically necessary services in rural and medically underserved communities, and specifies that each qualified district hospital may employ up to 2 physicians and surgeons, subject to specified requirements. This bill would delete that pilot project and would instead, until January 1, 2021, authorize a health care district, as defined, and a clinic owned or operated by a health care district, as specified, to employ physicians and surgeons if the health care district's service area includes a Medically Underserved Area (MUA) or a Medically Underserved Population (MUP) , or has been federally designated as a Health Professional Shortage Area (HPSA) ; the district board conducts a public hearing and adopts a specified resolution declaring the need for the district to recruit and directly employ one or more physicians and surgeons; and the executive officer of the district provides specified documentation to the Medical Board of California. Upon receipt of that documentation, the bill would require the board to approve the employment of up to 5 primary or specialty care physicians and surgeons by the district, and, upon receipt of additional documentation after that employment, to approve an additional 5 primary or specialty care physicians and surgeons. The bill would provide that a district may, until December 31, 2020, enter into, renew, or extend any employment contract with a physician and surgeon for up to 10 years. The bill would require the Office of Statewide Health Planning and Development, in consultation with the State Department of Public Health and the board, to report to the Legislature by June 1, 2018, with regard to the efficacy of the employment of physicians and surgeons by health care districts, as specified.
Sponsored bills
This measure would designate the first week of March of each year as Cuss Free Week.
Existing law provides for the county-administered In-Home Supportive Services (IHSS) program, under which qualified aged, blind, and disabled persons are provided with services in order to permit them to remain in their own homes and avoid institutionalization. Under existing law, the State Department of Social Services is vested with state administrative authority over the IHSS program. Existing law permits services to be provided under the IHSS program either through the employment of individual providers, a contract between the county and an entity for the provision of services, the creation by the county of a public authority, or a contract between the county and a nonprofit consortium. Existing law, upon request of a recipient of in-home supportive services, or a recipient of personal care services under the Medi-Cal program, authorizes the procurement of a criminal background check on certain provider applicants, pursuant to specified provisions. Existing legislation that will become effective on October 23, 2009, requires counties, public authorities, and nonprofit consortiums to complete criminal background checks of specified persons who seek to become supportive services providers. That legislation requires that the criminal background checks be conducted at the provider's expense. This bill would, instead, require that the criminal background checks be conducted at the provider's expense, unless the nonprofit consortium or public authority agrees to pay for the criminal background check in which case the department shall seek federal financial participation, to the extent possible, to cover costs associated with conducting the criminal background check. This bill would also incorporate changes to Section 12301.6 of the Welfare and Institutions Code proposed by AB 19 of the 2009–10 4th Extraordinary Session, to take effect if this bill and that bill are enacted and become effective on or before January 1, 2010, and this bill is enacted last.
Existing law requires the Department of the California Highway Patrol to adopt reasonable rules and regulations that, in the judgment of the department, are designed to promote the safe operation of specified commercial vehicles, regarding, among other things, inspection and maintenance of vehicles and to adopt procedures for the enforcement of these rules and regulations. This bill would, until January 1, 2012, establish the Strategic Area Freeway Enforcement Task Force in the Business, Transportation and Housing Agency to develop a work program that will optimize the effectiveness and efficiencies of the commercial vehicle enforcement network in southeast Los Angeles County through a multiagency collaborative effort focused on addressing ongoing commercial vehicle enforcement issues and to recognize the potential benefits from specified technologies. The bill would require the task force to report annually, on or before December 31 of each year, to the Governor, the Business, Transportation and Housing Agency, and the Assembly Committee on Transportation and the Senate Committee on Transportation and Housing on the progress made towards adoption of the recommendations developed to improve commercial vehicle enforcement in southeast Los Angeles County pursuant to a specified list of 6 objectives, that include, among other things, review of vehicle dimension-in-motion (VDIM) and automated driver identification (ADI) devices as a legal enforcement tool. The bill would require that the task force consist of 4 specified members, that the members of the task force serve without compensation, and that no state funds be used to compensate the members for expenses incurred in the performance of their official duties. The bill would also provide that the task force would not be required to implement the provisions of the bill except to the extent that nonstate funds are available for that purpose.
This measure would recognize the Lunar New Year 4708 celebration.
This measure would declare February 23, 2010, to be Spay Day USA 2010 in California, and would request that Californians observe that day by having their dogs and cats spayed or neutered and by providing voluntary services or other support to organizations that provide spay and neuter services.
This resolution would respectfully request that the International Maritime Organization, a specialized agency of the United Nations, adopt the North American Emission Control Area, as proposed by the United States, Canada, and France at the 60th session of the Marine Environment Protection Committee, scheduled for March 2010.
This measure would urge various state and private entities to withhold financial support of Arizona businesses in response to recent Arizona state laws relating to illegal immigration.
Existing law provides for the Medi-Cal program, which is administered by the State Department of Health Care Services and under which qualified low-income persons receive health care services. Existing law requires the department to apply for a waiver of federal law to test the efficacy of providing a disease management benefit, as described, to specified beneficiaries under the Medi-Cal program. This bill would authorize the department to, in accordance with federal law, provide to an entity that contracts with the state to provide disease management services to persons with the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) or acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (AIDS) certain information in the department's possession that is necessary to identify and enroll persons who are eligible for the disease management program, provided that the department possesses a signed informed consent form, as described, from each person whose information is disclosed. This bill would impose certain requirements on the above-described contractors to protect the confidentiality of the data provided to the contractor by the department.
This measure would declare February 19, 2010, as a Day of Remembrance in order to increase public awareness of the events surrounding the internment of Americans of Japanese ancestry during World War II.