Asm. Jim Patterson

Existing law establishes the State Department of Public Health and sets forth its powers and duties, including, but not limited to, implementation and administration of a community‑based system of perinatal care for eligible women and infants. Existing law requires the State Department of Public Health to license and regulate specified health facilities, including a general acute care hospital, a special hospital, and other types of specialized facilities. Existing law defines a perinatal unit as a maternity and newborn service of a hospital for the provision of care during pregnancy, labor, delivery, and postpartum and neonatal periods, as specified. Existing law requires a general acute care hospital or special hospital that has a perinatal unit to develop and implement a program relating to maternal mental health conditions, including, but not limited to, postpartum depression. Existing law requires the program to include, among other things, education and information about maternal mental health conditions for women, families, and hospital perinatal unit employees, as specified. This bill would require the State Department of Public Health to develop and regularly update a list of perinatal hospice providers and programs in the state, post the list on its internet website, and make the list available in written format, upon request, to all hospitals with a perinatal unit. The bill would require a hospital to inform a patient who receives a fatal fetal diagnosis about options relating to perinatal hospice, and to inform a patient who experiences a miscarriage or stillbirth, or who receives a fatal fetal diagnosis, of the options available to them with respect to matters, including, but not limited to, time allowed to be spent with the baby after delivery and availability of medical testing of the fetus.

Existing law authorizes the director of the Department of Forestry and Fire Protection as part of the Forest Improvement Program, to enter into agreements with an eligible landowner, as defined, pursuant to which the landowner will undertake forest resource improvement work in return for an agreement by the director to share the cost of carrying out that work, as specified. Existing law authorizes the director to provide the funds for the director's share of the costs in advance of any work performed if the eligible landowner agrees in writing to undertake the forest resource improvement work subject to the condition that funds provided for any uncompleted work shall constitute grounds for a claim and lien upon the real property owned by the landowner. This bill would require the department to develop, adopt, and implement policies and, if necessary, regulations that establish procedures for allowing homeowners to submit joint applications for purposes of combining the individual parcels of land owned by each homeowner so that the cumulative area of the lands in their joint application satisfies any minimum acreage requirements established by the department for participation in the program, and similarly establish procedures for providing up to 50% of the funds for the director's share of the costs under the program in advance of any work performed under a joint homeowner application.

Existing law establishes standards for the operation and maintenance of dairy farms licensed in the state. Existing law requires that dairy farms be constructed in accordance with the regulations, plans, and specifications adopted by the Secretary of Food and Agriculture. This bill would state the intent of the Legislature to enact subsequent legislation that would define "microdairies" and exempt those dairies from specified building and space requirements that are otherwise required for licensed dairy farms in the state.

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 other consumption of, a new, used, or remanufactured truck or a new or remanufactured trailer or semitrailer, any of which has an unladen weight of 6,000 pounds or more that is purchased for use without this state and is delivered by the manufacturer, remanufacturer, or dealer to the purchaser within this state, and the purchaser drives or moves the vehicle to any point outside this state within 30 or 75 days, as applicable, from and after the date of delivery, if the purchaser furnishes certain documents to the manufacturer, remanufacturer, or dealer. This bill would make a nonsubstantive change to this provision.

Existing law establishes the State Department of Public Health and sets forth its powers and duties, including, but not limited to, implementation and administration of a community‑based system of perinatal care for eligible women and infants. Existing law requires the State Department of Public Health to license and regulate specified health facilities, including a general acute care hospital, a special hospital, and other types of specialized facilities. Existing law defines a perinatal unit as a maternity and newborn service of a hospital for the provision of care during pregnancy, labor, delivery, and postpartum and neonatal periods, as specified. Existing law requires a general acute care hospital or special hospital that has a perinatal unit to develop and implement a program relating to maternal mental health conditions including, but not limited to, postpartum depression. Existing law requires that program to include, among other things, education and information about maternal mental health conditions for women, families, and hospital perinatal unit employees, as specified. This bill would require the education and information program to be available to bereaved mothers. The bill would define a bereaved mother as one who has experienced a miscarriage, stillbirth, or fatal fetal diagnosis. Existing law requires a licensed health care practitioner who provides prenatal or postpartum care for a patient to ensure that the mother is offered screening or is appropriately screened for maternal mental health conditions. This bill would specifically include a bereaved mother as a patient for those purposes.

Existing law requires the State Department of Health Care Services to license and regulate alcoholism or drug abuse recovery or treatment facilities serving adults. Existing law authorizes the department to certify qualified alcoholism or drug abuse recovery or treatment programs, as prescribed. Under existing law, the department regulates the quality of these programs, taking into consideration the significance of community-based programs to alcohol and other drug abuse recovery, and the need to encourage opportunities for low-income and special needs populations to receive alcohol and other drug abuse recovery or treatment services. This bill would make technical, nonsubstantive changes to those provisions.

Existing law requires the Board of Parole Hearings to meet with each indeterminately sentenced inmate during the 6th year before the inmate's minimum eligible parole date for the purposes of reviewing and documenting the inmate's activities and conduct pertinent to parole eligibility. One year before the inmate's minimum eligible parole date, existing law requires a panel of the board to meet with the inmate and to grant parole unless the panel or board sitting en banc determines that the gravity of the current convicted offense, or the timing and gravity of current or past convicted offenses, is such that consideration of the public safety requires a more lengthy period of incarceration for the inmate. The California Constitution authorizes the Governor to affirm, modify, or reverse the decision of the Board of Parole Hearings with respect to the granting, denial, revocation, or suspension of parole of a person sentenced to an indeterminate term upon conviction of murder. This bill would state the intent of the Legislature to enact legislation to amend the process of parole for inmates who have been granted parole by the Board of Parole Hearings but whose grant of parole was denied by the Governor.

This measure would proclaim January 23, 2020, as Maternal Health Awareness Day, to draw attention to the efforts that have improved maternal health in California and to highlight the need for continued improvement of maternal health for all women.

This measure would designate the month of January 2020 as Positive Parenting Awareness Month in California.