The California Constitution provides that the University of California constitutes a public trust, and requires the university to be administered by the Regents of the University of California, a corporation in the form of a board, with full powers of organization and government, subject to legislative control only for specified purposes. Existing law establishes the Hastings College of the Law, under the governance of an 11-member Board of Directors of the Hastings College of the Law, within the University of California. Existing law provides that the college shall forever be known and designated as the Hastings College of the Law. This bill would instead provide that the college shall be designated as the College of the Law. The bill would rename Hastings College of the Law as the College of the Law and would rename the Board of Directors of the Hastings College of the Law as the Board of Directors of the College of the Law. The bill would make conforming changes.
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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. Existing law authorizes the department to charge a fee to all programs for licensure or certification by the department, and establishes the Residential and Outpatient Program Licensing Fund to hold these fees. This bill would create the Allied Behavioral Health Board within the Department of Consumer Affairs, and would transfer the responsibility to oversee those certifying organizations from the State Department of Health Care Services to the board. The bill would require the board to establish regulations and standards for the licensure of substance use disorder counselors, as specified. This bill would require an applicant for a substance use disorder counselor license to have documented to a certifying organization that they have obtained a master's degree in alcohol and drug counseling or a related counseling master's degree, as specified, and to pass specified examinations. The bill would require the board to review the criminal history of the applicant, as specified. The bill would prohibit a person from using the title of "Licensed Alcohol Drug Counselor" unless the person has applied for and obtained a license from the board, and would make a violation of that provision punishable by an administrative penalty not to exceed $1,000. The bill would require the board to establish fees for licensure, as specified, and would revert all unencumbered funds appropriated from fees in the Residential and Outpatient Program Licensing Fund to the State Department of Health Care Services for the purpose of certification oversight of substance use disorder counselors to that fund. The bill would make its provisions operative upon the appropriation by the Legislature of sufficient funds allocated to the state from a specified settlement agreement, consistent with the requirements of the settlement agreement.
Existing law establishes the California Community Colleges, under the administration of the Board of Governors of the California Community Colleges, as one of the segments of public postsecondary education in this state. The board of governors appoints the Chancellor of the California Community Colleges as the chief executive officer of the segment. Existing law establishes the California Online Community College, under the administration of the board of governors, for purposes of creating an organized system of accessible, flexible, and high-quality online content, courses, and programs focused on providing industry-valued credentials compatible with the vocational and educational needs of Californians who are not currently accessing higher education. This bill would make the California Online Community College Act inoperative on January 1, 2024. On or before January 1, 2024, the bill would appropriate the California Online Community College's funding for specified purposes at the California Community Colleges, as provided.
Existing law, referred to as the Medical Injury Compensation Reform Act of 1975 (MICRA) , prohibits an attorney from contracting for or collecting a contingency fee for representing any person seeking damages in connection with an action for injury or damage against a health care provider based upon alleged professional negligence in excess of specified limits. This bill would recast those provisions and base the amount of contingency fee that may be contracted for upon whether recovery is pursuant to settlement agreement and release of all claims executed before a civil complaint or demand for arbitration is filed, or pursuant to settlement, arbitration, or judgment after a civil complaint or demand for arbitration is filed, as specified. The bill would add and revise definitions for these purposes. Existing law provides that in any action against a health care provider based upon professional negligence, the injured plaintiff is entitled to recover noneconomic losses to compensate for pain, suffering, inconvenience, physical impairment, disfigurement, and other nonpecuniary damage. Existing law limits the amount of damages for noneconomic losses in an action for injury against a health care provider based on professional negligence to $250,000. This bill would remove the $250,000 limit on noneconomic damages and expand the recast provisions to include an action for injury against a health care institution, as defined. The bill would increase the applicable limitation based upon whether the action for injury involved wrongful death. The bill would specify that these limitations would increase by $40,000 each January 1st for 10 years and beginning on January 1, 2034, the applicable limitations on noneconomic damages for personal injury and for wrongful death would be adjusted for inflation on January 1st of each year by 2%. Existing law specifies that in any action for injury or damages against a provider of health care services, a superior court shall, at the request of either party, enter a judgment ordering that money damages or its equivalent for future damages of the judgment creditor be paid in whole or in part by periodic payments rather than by a lump-sum payment if the award equals or exceeds $50,000. This bill would increase the minimum amount of the judgment required to request periodic payments to $250,000. Existing law makes statements, writings, or benevolent gestures expressing sympathy or a general sense of benevolence relating to the pain, suffering, or death of a person involved in an accident and made to that person, or to the family of that person, inadmissible as evidence of an admission of liability in a civil action. This bill would specify that statements, writings, or benevolent gestures expressing sympathy, regret, a general sense of benevolence, or suggesting, reflecting, or accepting fault relating to the pain, suffering, or death of a person, or to an adverse patient safety event or unexpected health care outcome, as specified, shall be confidential, privileged, protected, not subject to subpoena, discovery, or disclosure, and shall not be used or admitted into evidence in any civil, administrative, regulatory, licensing, or disciplinary board, agency, or body action or proceeding, and shall not be used or admitted in relation to any sanction, penalty, or other liability, as evidence of an admission of liability or for any other purpose.
(1) Existing law, the Alcoholic Beverage Control Act, contains various provisions regulating the application for, the issuance of, the suspension of, and the conditions imposed upon alcoholic beverage licenses by the Department of Alcoholic Beverage Control. This bill would prohibit the department from denying the issuance of a retail license solely on the basis that the premises are located within 100 feet of a residence. (2) Existing law requires an applicant to mail notification of an application for the issuance of a retail license to every resident and owner of real property within a 500-foot radius of the premises for which the license is to be issued, except as specified. This bill would specify that the notice is not required if the local governing body of the jurisdiction in which the license is to be issued has adopted an ordinance waiving the notification requirement. (3) Existing law provides that if an application for a license is voluntarily withdrawn as a result of any protest being filed opposing the issuance of the license, the applicant may not refile an application for the same location for one year. Additionally, existing law makes the verified protests valid against any subsequent applications filed for that premises for one year from the date of withdrawal. This bill would repeal the one-year bar on refiling an application for the same location. The bill would limit the one-year validity period of verified protests to subsequent applications for a license of the same type that are filed for that premises. (4) Existing law, after the department notifies an applicant and all protesting parties of its determination to issue a license, authorizes a protesting party to request the department to conduct a hearing on the issues protested. This bill would require the department, after 120 days have elapsed since verification of a protest without holding a hearing, to notify the person who filed the verified protest of their need to reconfirm their request for a hearing in writing, and would deem the protest withdrawn if the person who filed the request for a hearing does not provide the confirmation within 30 days.
Existing law grants the Division of Occupational Safety and Health, which is within the Department of Industrial Relations, jurisdiction over all employment and places of employment, with the power necessary to enforce and administer all occupational health and safety laws and standards. The Occupational Safety and Health Standards Board, an independent entity within the department, has the exclusive authority to adopt occupational safety and health standards within the state. Existing law, the California Occupational Safety and Health Act of 1973, requires employers to comply with certain standards ensuring healthy and safe working conditions, as specified, and charges the division with enforcement of the act. Other existing law relating to occupational safety imposes special provisions on certain industries and charges the division with enforcement of these provisions. This bill would require a motion picture production employer to hire a qualified set safety supervisor for all motion picture productions to perform a risk assessment, as specified, to be completed prior to the first day of production on a feature, an episode of a series, or a program, and to be on set daily to ensure cast and crew are not engaged in or exposed to an environment or activity that puts workers' health and safety at risk. The bill would allow the use of a firearm and blank ammunition containing gunpowder or other explosive charge on motion picture productions only for specified purposes and under specified safety conditions. The bill would require a qualified armorer, property master, or designee handling a firearm in the course of the motion picture production to have a specified state permit, to have completed certain training in firearms, and to have a specified federal document for the possession and custody of the firearm. The bill would require an employer to document and report to certain entities any incident involving a firearm or blank ammunition that occurs during a film or television production, as prescribed. This bill would prohibit ammunition on film, television, and commercial sets, except in prescribed circumstances, subject to certain safety rules and laws. The bill would require an employer to ensure that any employee responsible for handling, or in proximity to, firearms on set completes a specific firearm training or equivalent training, as prescribed. The bill would require an employer to comply with the bill and all safety standards adopted by the standards board. The bill would establish exemptions from its provisions for specified registered security guards and peace officers when they are on the perimeter of a set where motion picture production is happening. This bill would require the division to enforce its provisions and, before July 1, 2023, to propose to the standards board, for its review and adoption on or before January 1, 2024, a standard that protects the health and safety of motion picture production employees with regard to the storage, handling, and use of firearms and blanks on set and for use of ammunition. The bill would require the division, in the development of the proposed safety standard, to consider and incorporate, to the extent feasible and consistent with the bill, the provisions of specified joint industry-labor safety bulletins. The bill would also require the division to consider certain other safety standards as it determines to be relevant. The bill would establish civil penalties for specified violations. The bill would define terms for its purposes.
Existing law, the Knox-Keene Health Care Service Plan Act of 1975 (Knox-Keene) , 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 health care service plan contracts and health insurance policies that provide hospital, medical, or surgical coverage to provide coverage for the diagnosis and medically necessary treatment of severe mental illnesses, as defined, of a person of any age. This bill would require a health care service plan contract or health insurance policy issued, amended, or renewed on and after January 1, 2023, to provide coverage for coordinated specialty care (CSC) services for the treatment of early psychosis, composed of specified treatment modalities and affiliated activities including, but not limited to, case management, pharmacotherapy and medication management, psychotherapy, and outreach and recruitment activities. The bill would require those treatment modalities and affiliated activities to be billed and reimbursed as a bundle. The bill would require the CSC services provided to be consistent with specified provisions applicable to the treatment of mental health and substance use disorders. The bill would specify the membership of the CSC team. The bill would specify that these provisions do not apply to specified Medi-Cal managed care contracts entered into between the State Department of Health Care Services and a health care service plan for enrolled Medi-Cal beneficiaries. The bill would require the California Health and Human Services Agency, in consultation with the Mental Health Services Oversight and Accountability Commission, to commission a study to improve understanding, awareness, and accountability associated with psychosis, the duration of untreated psychosis, and its impacts. Among other components, the bill would require the study to document the annual prevalence rate for the onset of psychosis in California and the availability of coordinated specialty care services to Californians who experience a first episode of psychosis, and to recommend a state or county-based system, or both, to monitor outcomes associated with access to the most effective interventions and services in response to psychosis and those associated with the lack of access to effective interventions and services, as specified. The bill also would require the agency, in consultation with the commission, to develop and implement strategies to annually improve access to effective interventions for early psychosis, and to improve the access to, and quality of, care for persons with severe and persistent psychosis, as specified. Because a violation of certain requirements of the bill 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 federal law establishes the federal Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) , known in California as CalFresh, under which supplemental nutrition assistance benefits allocated to the state by the federal government are distributed to eligible individuals by each county. Existing law establishes a statewide electronic benefits transfer (EBT) system, administered by the State Department of Social Services, for the purpose of providing financial and food assistance benefits, including CalFresh benefits. Existing law establishes the California Fruit and Vegetable EBT Pilot Project and requires the department, in consultation with the Department of Food and Agriculture and specified stakeholders, to include within the EBT system a supplemental benefits mechanism that allows an authorized retailer to deliver and redeem supplemental benefits. Existing law defines the term "supplemental benefits" for these purposes to mean additional funds delivered to a CalFresh recipient's EBT card upon purchase of California-grown fresh fruits and vegetables using CalFresh benefits. Existing law requires the department, upon the deposit of sufficient moneys into the California Fruit and Vegetable EBT Grant Fund, and upon the appropriation of moneys from the fund by the Legislature for this purpose, to provide a minimum of 3 grants to nonprofit organizations or governmental agencies for pilot projects to implement and test the supplemental benefits mechanism, as specified. This bill would establish the California Fruit and Vegetable Supplemental Benefits Expansion Program and create the California Fruit and Vegetable EBT Expansion Fund in the State Treasury. The program would include a process and guidelines for the State Department of Social Services to, upon the deposit of sufficient moneys in the fund, enroll authorized retailers to enable those authorized retailers to provide supplemental benefits to CalFresh recipients who purchase California-grown fresh fruits and vegetables. The bill would authorize the department to initially allocate from any appropriation made for the purposes of the program, $140,000,000 for large authorized retailers that are not direct farm-to-consumer authorized retailers to provide supplemental benefits, $40,000,000 for small authorized retailers that are not direct farm-to-consumer authorized retailers to provide supplemental benefits, and $60,000,000 for direct farm-to-consumer authorized retailers to provide supplemental benefits. The bill would also require the department to provide grants to small authorized retailers that are not direct farm-to-consumer authorized retailers to offset the cost of technological upgrades required to offer supplemental benefits and would authorize the department to allocate up to $1,000,000 from any appropriation made for the purposes of the program to provide those grants. The bill would authorize the department, 6 months or later after the enrollment of authorized retailers as a result the first round of application solicitation, to reallocate those funds. The bill would require supplemental benefits to be provided using the EBT system supplemental benefits mechanism established for purposes of the California Fruit and Vegetable EBT Pilot Project. The bill would also require the department, as part of the program, to contract with one or more vendors to develop at least 2 technology solutions that allow authorized retailers to wirelessly accept EBT CalFresh benefits and offer supplemental benefits, to develop marketing materials that authorized retailers that have been enrolled in the program and community groups can use for outreach efforts to promote supplemental benefits, and to submit specified reports to the Legislature. The bill would require, if the department fails to submit one of the reports, if the report recommends stopping further expansion of supplemental benefits programs, or if supplemental benefits are not distributed pursuant to the California Fruit and Vegetable EBT Pilot Project, all unencumbered state funds in the California Fruit and Vegetable EBT Expansion Fund to revert to the General Fund. The bill would require the Department of Food and Agriculture to establish a process to conduct periodic audits of enrolled authorized retailers to verify that supplemental benefits are only being earned when a CalFresh recipient purchases California-grown fresh fruits and vegetables. The bill would also require the Department of Food and Agriculture to develop a grant program to award funds to nonprofit organizations to recruit, train, and support authorized retailers participating in supplemental benefit programs. The bill would require the State Department of Social Services to seek any necessary federal waivers or approvals to implement these provisions.
Under existing law, the Stop Tobacco Access to Kids Enforcement Act, an enforcing agency, as defined, may assess civil penalties against any person, firm, or corporation that sells, gives, or furnishes specified tobacco and cigarette related items, including cigarette papers, to a person who is under 21 years of age, except as specified. The existing civil penalties range from $400 to $600 for a first violation, up to $5,000 to $6,000 for a 5th violation within a 5-year period. Existing law prohibits the sale, distribution, or nonsale distribution of tobacco products directly or indirectly to any person under 21 years of age through the United States Postal Service or other public or private postal or package delivery service. Under existing law, a district attorney, city attorney, or the Attorney General may assess civil penalties against a violator of not less than $1,000 or more than $2,000 for the first violation and up to $10,000 for a 5th or subsequent violation within a 5-year period. Under existing law, every person, firm, or corporation that knowingly or under circumstances in which it has knowledge, or should otherwise have grounds for knowledge, sells, gives, or furnishes a cigarette, among other specified items, to another person who is under 21 years of age is, except as specified, subject to either a criminal action for a misdemeanor or to a civil action brought by a city attorney, a county counsel, or a district attorney, punishable by a fine of $200 for the first offense, $500 for the 2nd offense, and $1,000 for the 3rd offense. This bill would prohibit a person or entity from selling, giving, or furnishing to another person of any age in this state a single-use electronic cigarette, as defined, except as specified. The bill would prohibit that selling, giving, or furnishing, whether conducted directly or indirectly through an in-person transaction, or by means of any public or private method of shipment or delivery to an address in this state. This bill would authorize a city attorney, county counsel, or district attorney to assess a $500 civil fine against each person determined to have violated those prohibitions in a proceeding conducted pursuant to the procedures of the enforcing agency, as specified. This bill would make its provisions operative on January 1, 2024.