Existing law provides for the licensure of long-term health care facilities by the State Department of Public Health. Under existing law, the Long-Term Care, Health, Safety, and Security Act of 1973, the department may assess penalties for violation of prescribed state and federal requirements. Moneys collected as a result of the penalties imposed pursuant to these provisions are required to be deposited into either the State Health Facilities Citation Penalties Account or the Federal Health Facilities Citation Penalties Account, and used, upon appropriation by the Legislature, for the protection of health or property of residents of long-term health care facilities, including reimbursing residents for personal funds lost and costs associated with informational meetings. Existing law establishes the Office of the State Long-Term Care Ombudsman in the California Department of Aging. Under existing law, the office is responsible for, among other things, investigating and resolving complaints and concerns communicated by or on behalf of patients, residents, or clients of long-term care facilities, as defined. Existing law authorizes the California Department of Aging to allocate all federal and state funds for local ombudsman programs according to a specified distribution schedule. This bill would require at least 12 of the funds in the State Health Facilities Citation Penalties Account and the Federal Health Facilities Citation Penalties Account be used to fund local ombudsman programs pursuant to the aforementioned distribution schedule.
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(1) Existing law generally prohibits a person from driving a motor vehicle while using a wireless telephone unless the telephone is specifically designed and configured to allow hands-free listening and talking, and is used in that manner while driving. A violation of the Vehicle Code generally is an infraction. This bill would prohibit a person from using a wireless telephone or other communication device, as the bill would define that term, during a vehicle stop made by a law enforcement officer for a violation of the Vehicle Code, thereby creating a new infraction. If a law enforcement officer makes a vehicle stop for a violation of the Vehicle Code, the bill would also make it an infraction for a person in the vehicle that is stopped to fail to comply with the officer's direction to stop using a wireless telephone or other communication device. The bill would exempt from its provisions a person using a wireless telephone or other communication device for emergency purposes or to record, tape, or otherwise film anything that occurs during a traffic stop. By creating new infractions, the bill would impose a state-mandated local program. (2) 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 requires an employer to provide a reasonable amount of break time for lactation purposes and specifies that the break time, if possible, shall run concurrently with any break time already provided to the employee. Under existing law, break time is unpaid if it does not run concurrently with the employee's authorized rest time. Existing law authorizes the Labor Commissioner to issue a citation for the violation of these provisions but exempts the violation from criminal prosecution. This bill would, instead, require an employer to provide a 20-minute paid rest period for lactation purposes during each 4-hour work period, immediately preceding or following the employee's rest period, and would specify that compliance with this requirement does not satisfy or affect an employer's separate obligation to provide a meal or rest period required by statute, an Industrial Welfare Commission order, or a collective bargaining agreement.
Existing law establishes the California State University and its various campuses under the administration of the Trustees of the California State University. Existing law requires the California State University to offer undergraduate and graduate instruction through the master's degree in the liberal arts and sciences and professional education, including teacher education. This bill would authorize the California State University to award the Doctor of Nursing Practice degree. The bill would distinguish the Doctor of Nursing Practice degree from the doctor of philosophy degree offered at the University of California. The bill would require the Doctor of Nursing Practice degree program to be designed to enable professionals to earn the degree while working full time, train nurses for advanced practice, and prepare clinical faculty to teach in postsecondary nursing programs. The bill would require initial funding to come from existing budgets, without diminishing the quality of undergraduate programs or reducing enrollment therein. The bill would require the California State University to annually report on the status of the Doctor of Nursing Practice degree program, as specified.
Existing law, the Mello-Granlund Older Californians Act, establishes the Multipurpose Senior Services Program to provide specified services to frail elderly individuals 65 years of age and older who are certifiable for placement in a nursing facility. Existing law requires the California Department of Aging to administer the program in accordance with an interagency agreement with the State Department of Health Care Services. This bill would make technical, nonsubstantive changes to these provisions.
Existing law makes confidential the home address of any of a list of state officers and employees that appears in the Department of Motor Vehicles' records, if the officer or employee requests it be kept confidential, with certain exemptions for information available to specified governmental agencies. This bill would revise that provision to include an employee of the State Board of Equalization who is designated by the executive director of the board to exercise limited authority and powers of a peace officer pursuant to provisions of the Penal Code.
Existing law provides for licensing and regulation of health care service plans by the Department of Managed Health Care. Existing law provides for the regulation of health insurers by the Insurance Commissioner. Existing law authorizes a health care service plan or health insurer to exclude an applicant from coverage for a specified time for preexisting conditions. A willful violation of provisions governing health care service plans is a crime. This bill would prohibit an individual health care service plan contract or health insurance policy from denying coverage to, or excluding coverage for, an enrollee or insured due to a preexisting condition provision or otherwise, as specified, due to a mental or physical condition that is not life threatening nor chronic or severe, that is not considered to be a present condition at the time of enrollment, and for which the enrollee or insured has not received treatment for the past 12 months. By imposing a new requirement on health care service plans, the willful violation of which 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 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 also provides for the regulation of health insurers by the Department of Insurance. Existing law requires health care service plan contracts and health insurance policies to provide coverage for all generally medically accepted cancer screening tests and requires those plans and policies to also provide coverage for the treatment of breast cancer. Existing law imposes various requirements on contracts and policies that cover prescription drug benefits. This bill would require health care service plan contracts and health insurance policies that provide coverage for cancer chemotherapy treatment to provide coverage for a prescribed, orally administered cancer medication, as specified, on a basis no less favorable than intravenously administered or injected cancer medications covered under the contracts or policies. The bill would require a health care service plan or health insurer to review the percentage cost share, as defined, for oral cancer medications and intravenous or injected cancer medications and to apply the lower of the 2 as the cost-sharing provision for oral cancer medications. The bill would specify that its requirements do not apply to a health care benefit plan, contract, or health insurance policy with the Board of Administration of the Public Employees' Retirement System. Because a willful violation of the bill's requirements relative to health care service plans 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 provides for the In-Home Supportive Services (IHSS) program, under which qualified aged, blind, and disabled persons receive services enabling them to remain in their own homes and avoid institutionalization. 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 provides for the Medi-Cal program, administered by the State Department of Health Care Services, under which health care services are provided to qualified low-income persons. Under existing law, IHSS recipients who are eligible for the Medi-Cal program are provided with personal care option services, as defined, in lieu of receiving these services under the IHSS program. Existing law, enacted in 2009, makes various statutory changes with respect to the provision of in-home supportive services, relating to matters, including, but not limited to, provider enrollment procedures, criminal background checks, orientation, and duties, as well as eligibility standards for recipients, unannounced home visits, and program integrity and fraud prevention. This bill would make the operation of the statutory changes described above subject to a stakeholder process, to be conducted, as specified, by the State Department of Social Services, prior to the implementation of those changes. The bill would require implementation of any of the statutory changes described in the bill to occur either on the date specified in an applicable statute, or 60 days after the department notifies the Joint Legislative Budget Committee that the changes may be implemented, whichever is later. This bill would prohibit information notices relating to the implementation of these statutory changes from being sent to recipients or providers until the stakeholder process is completed. This bill would declare that it is to take effect immediately as an urgency statute.
Existing law generally requires a vehicle, stopped or parked upon a roadway where there are adjacent curbs, to be stopped or parked with the right-hand wheels of the vehicle parallel with and within 18 inches of the right-hand curb, with specified exceptions, including authorizing a vehicle to be stopped or parked with the left-hand wheels parallel to and within 18 inches of the left-hand curb on a one-way roadway. This bill would authorize the City of Long Beach to permit vehicles to park on the left-hand side of the roadway parallel to and within 18 inches of the left-hand curb on a two-way local residential street that dead-ends with no designated area in which to turn around provided that the city makes a finding, supported by a professional engineering study, that the ordinance or resolution is justified by the need to facilitate the safe and orderly movement of vehicles, and the applicable streets are demarcated with signs or markings giving adequate notice of the parking allowances.