Existing law provides for the professional review of specified healing arts licentiates through a peer review process conducted by peer review bodies, as defined. Existing law establishes the Joint Committee on Boards, Commissions, and Consumer Protection and requires the committee to review all state boards every 4 years. Existing law requires those boards, within a specified period of time prior to their review, to submit a report to the committee containing certain information. This bill would require peer review bodies to annually report to the Medical Board of California on their peer review activities involving licensees of that board and to comply with any requests from the board for more detailed information. The bill would require the board to include a summary of those reports in the report submitted to the Joint Committee on Boards, Commissions, and Consumer Protection. Under existing law, specified persons are required to file a report, designated as an "805 report," with a licensing board if a peer review body takes one of several specified actions against a person licensed by that board. Existing law provides various due process rights for licentiates who are the subject of a final proposed disciplinary action of a peer review body, including authorizing a licensee to request a hearing concerning that action. With respect to physicians and surgeons, this bill would require peer review bodies to administer an early detection and resolution program (EDR) in which a peer review body would, where it deems appropriate, allow a physician and surgeon to complete certain training, observation, or consultation requirements instead of being subject to disciplinary action and an 805 report, as specified. The bill would delay the physician and surgeon's right to a hearing concerning a final proposed action pending his or her successful completion of EDR. Existing law requires the Medical Board of California to maintain a central file of its licensees containing, among other things, disciplinary information reported through 805 reports and authorizes licensees to submit additional exculpatory or explanatory statements, as specified. Existing law requires the board to disclose an 805 report to specified health care entities and requires the board to post on the Internet, and to disclose to inquiring members of the public, certain hospital disciplinary actions. The bill would require the board to include the exculpatory or explanatory statement submitted by licensees regarding 805 reports in disclosures or postings of those reports or of hospital disciplinary actions. If a court finds that the peer review resulting in the 805 report was conducted in bad faith and the licensee who is the subject of the report notifies the board of that finding, the bill would require the board to include that finding in the licensee's central file. The bill would also prohibit the board from reporting or posting certain disciplinary information if a court reverses a disciplinary action reported pursuant to Section 805 and the licensee notifies the board of that reversal. The bill would require the board to also send notice of the reversal to members of the public and health care entities to whom the board previously disclosed the disciplinary information. Existing law requires the Medical Board of California to adopt and administer standards for the continuing education of licensed physicians and surgeons. This bill would require the board to adopt and administer standards allowing a physician and surgeon to receive credit for up to 10 hours of continuing education each year for participating in a peer review body without compensation.
Sponsored bills
The Personal Income Tax Law authorizes various credits against the taxes imposed by that law. Existing law authorizes a credit against those taxes in an amount equal to the lesser of 5% of the purchase price of a qualified principal residence, as defined, purchased on and after March 1, 2009, and before March 1, 2010, or $10,000, allocated by the Franchise Tax Board on a first-come-first-served basis. Existing law requires a taxpayer to provide the Franchise Tax Board with a certification from the seller of the qualified principal residence that the residence has never been previously occupied within one week of the sale of the residence and caps the total amount of the credit at $100,000,000. This bill would allow the tax credit for purchases of a qualified principal residence made before the date that is 12 months after the effective date of this bill, subject to specified restrictions. This bill would revise the certification requirements to provide that the taxpayer receive the certification no later than one week after the close of escrow on the qualified principal residence and that the Franchise Tax Board be provided with the certification upon request by the board. This bill would also remove the cap on the total credit amount allowed and the requirement that the tax credits be allocated on a first-come-first-served basis. This bill would take effect immediately as a tax levy.
Existing law requires a vehicle proceeding upon a highway at a speed less than the normal speed of traffic to drive in the right-hand lane for traffic or as close as practicable to the right-hand edge or curb, with exceptions. This bill would make technical, nonsubstative changes to that law.
Existing law requires the Department of Finance, in its role of assisting the Governor in preparing the annual state budget, to develop, issue, and implement consistent and adequate guidelines for agencies required to submit budgets. This bill would additionally require the Department of Finance to develop a performance budgeting pilot project under which the budgets of at least 4 departments in specified fiscal years would be analyzed by specified criteria. The bill would require these pilot project budgets to be considered by the Senate Committee on Budget and Fiscal Review and the Assembly Committee on Budget. The bill would require the Department of Finance to evaluate this pilot project and report its findings to the Chairperson of the Joint Legislative Budget Committee on or before January 1, 2014.
Existing law provides for the licensure and regulation of contractors by the Contractors' State License Board. Existing law requires a home improvement contract, as defined, to be in writing and to contain certain information, notices, and statements. Existing law requires certain of those notices and statements to be in at least 10-point or 12-point boldface type, as specified. Existing law also provides that a contractor furnishing a bond, bond equivalent, or joint control approved by the registrar of contractors need not include, as part of the contract, certain of those notices and statements. This bill would additionally provide that a contractor furnishing a performance and payment bond need not include, as part of the contract, a notice stating that the owner or tenant has the right to require the contractor to have a performance and payment bond provided that the contractor gives the owner tangible evidence of the bond, as specified, and would also provide that a contractor furnishing a bond, bond equivalent, or joint control is exempt from certain typeface point size requirements as long as the required notices and statements meet specified legibility and readability standards. The bill would also make conforming changes to related provisions.
Existing law requires all money collected under the provisions of the Fish and Game Code, including money received as a result of the sale of licenses issued under the provisions of the code, to be deposited into the Fish and Game Preservation Fund, unless otherwise provided. Existing law requires the Department of Fish and Game to operate wildlife management areas on a nonprofit basis for multiple recreational uses. Existing law authorizes the department to issue an annual wildlife area pass or a day use pass that authorizes the bearer to enter and use facilities and programs on designated department-managed lands. Existing law grants authority to the Fish and Game Commission to issue tags and licenses for the hunting of antelope, elk, upland game birds, deer, wild pigs, bears, and bighorn sheep upon payment of a fee, to be deposited into the fund. This bill would establish the Upland Game Bird Account within the fund to permit separate accountability for the receipt and, subject to appropriation, the prescribed expenditure of revenues from upland game bird validations and stamps. The bill would establish the Big Game Management Account within the fund to permit separate accountability for the receipt and, subject to appropriation, the prescribed expenditure of revenues from antelope, elk, deer, wild pig, bear, and bighorn sheep tags. The bill would exempt projects funded from the accounts from the State Contract Act and from statutory provisions relating to the Disabled Veteran Business Enterprise Program. The bill would make various conforming changes relating to the establishment of the accounts.
Existing law provides for the professional review of specified healing arts licentiates through a peer review process. This bill would define the term "peer review" for purposes of those provisions. Under existing law, specified persons are required to file a report, designated as an "805 report," with a licensing board within 15 days after a specified action is taken against a person licensed by that board. This bill would also require specified persons to file a report with a licensing board within 15 days after a peer review body makes a decision or recommendation regarding the disciplinary action to be taken against a licentiate of that board based on the peer review body's determination, following formal investigation, that the licentiate may have engaged in various acts, including incompetence, substance abuse, excessive prescribing or furnishing of controlled substances, or sexual misconduct, among other things. The bill would authorize the board to inspect and copy certain documents in the record of that investigation. Existing law requires the board to maintain an 805 report for a period of 3 years after receipt. This bill would require the board to maintain the report electronically. Existing law authorizes the Medical Board of California, the Osteopathic Medical Board of California, and the Dental Board of California to inspect and copy certain documents in the record of any disciplinary proceeding resulting in action that is required to be reported in an 805 report. This bill would specify that the boards have the authority to also inspect, as permitted by other applicable law, any certified copy of medical records in the record of the disciplinary proceeding. Existing law requires specified healing arts boards to maintain a central file of their licensees containing, among other things, disciplinary information reported through 805 reports. Under this bill, if a court finds, in a final judgment, that the peer review resulting in the 805 report was conducted in bad faith and the licensee who is the subject of the report notifies the board of that finding, the board would be required to include that finding in the licensee's central file. Existing law requires the Medical Board of California, the Osteopathic Medical Board of California, and the California Board of Podiatric Medicine to disclose an 805 report to specified health care entities and to disclose certain hospital disciplinary actions to inquiring members of the public. Existing law also requires the Medical Board of California to post hospital disciplinary actions regarding its licensees on the Internet. This bill would prohibit those disclosures, and would require the Medical Board of California to remove certain information posted on the Internet, if a court finds, in a final judgment, that the peer review resulting in the 805 report or the hospital disciplinary action was conducted in bad faith and the licensee notifies the board of that finding. The bill would also require the Medical Board of California to include certain exculpatory or explanatory statements in those disclosures or postings and would require the board to post on the Internet a factsheet that explains and provides information on the 805 reporting requirements. Existing law also requires the Medical Board of California, the Osteopathic Medical Board of California, and the California Board of Podiatric Medicine to disclose to an inquiring member of the public information regarding enforcement actions taken against a licensee by the board or by another state or jurisdiction. This bill would also require those boards to make those disclosures regarding enforcement actions taken against former licensees. Existing law requires a peer review body that reviews physicians and surgeons to, under specified circumstances, report certain information to an obsolete diversion program within the Medical Board of California. This bill would instead require the report to be made directly to the executive director of the board and would make other conforming changes. The bill would make related nonsubstantive changes. The bill would also provide that it shall become operative only if AB 120 is also enacted and becomes operative. The bill would incorporate additional changes to Section 800 of the Business and Professions Code, proposed by SB 819, to be operative only if both bills are chaptered and become effective on or before January 1, 2010, and this bill is chaptered last. The bill would incorporate additional changes to Section 805 of the Business and Professions Code, proposed by SB 821, to be operative only if both bills are chaptered and become effective on or before January 1, 2010, and this bill is chaptered last.
Existing law authorizes the Department of Fish and Game to issue permits, subject to restrictions and regulations that the Fish and Game Commission determines are desirable, to take or possess, in any part of the state, for scientific, educational, or propagation purposes, mammals, birds and the nests and eggs thereof, fish, amphibians, reptiles, or any other form of plant or animal life. Violation of these provisions is a crime. This bill would authorize the issuance of a permit for scientific purposes, on the payment of a specified fee, to a California-certified small business, an aquarium accredited by the Association of Zoos and Aquariums, or other appropriate institution, in the name of a principal scientific investigator or the permitted entity. The bill would authorize the department to approve individual temporary employees or volunteers to work under the permit, after receiving notification from the permittee. The bill would authorize the amendment of the permit, including, but not limited to, the addition or removal of individual temporary employees or volunteers working under the permit, on the payment of a specified fee. The bill would make it a misdemeanor for a permittee to allow a temporary employee or volunteer to work under a permit without approval from the department, creating a new crime, and thereby imposing 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, subject to exceptions, provides that no person shall sell, lease, or transfer firearms unless that person is licensed, as specified. This bill would add exceptions to these provisions for the exchange of a firearm to or from a gunsmith for purposes of service or repair, and would exempt from these provisions, the delivery, sale, return, or transfer of certain firearms by persons holding certain permits, as specified. Existing law provides that no person shall make an application to purchase more than one handgun within any 30-day period. Existing law also exempts various entities from this restriction. This bill would add to the list of exempted entities community colleges that are certified by the Commission on Peace Officer Standards and Training to present the law enforcement academy basic course or other commission-certified law enforcement training. Existing law provides that, commencing July 1, 2008, a person who is a federally licensed firearms dealer may not deliver, sell, or transfer a firearm to a person in California who is a federally licensed firearms dealer unless, prior to delivery, the person intending to deliver, sell, or transfer the firearm obtains a verification number via the Internet for the intended delivery, sale, or transfer, from the Department of Justice. One provision of law exempts from these verification number requirements any delivery, sale, or transfer of a short-barreled rifle, short-barreled shotgun, machinegun, or an assault weapon, as specified, while an alternate provision exempts from these verification number requirements only the lawful delivery, sale, or transfer of these weapons, as specified. The bill would delete these exemptions from the verification number requirements. This bill would create additional exemptions from the verification requirement for certain other firearms transactions. Existing law requires the Department of Justice to maintain a centralized list of federal firearms licensees, as specified. Existing law authorizes the department to assess an annual fee on those licensees listed on that centralized list. This bill would remove persons identifying themselves as federally licensed pawnbrokers from those required to be included in the centralized list, and would exempt persons possessing specified permits who are on the centralized list from the fee assessment. This bill would incorporate additional changes to Section 12078 of the Penal Code proposed by SB 41, to become operative if this bill is enacted after SB 41.
Existing law provides for the establishment and operation of certain state-owned and operated veterans' cemeteries. Existing law authorizes honorably discharged veterans and their spouses and children to be interred at these cemeteries, and provides for a fee to be charged for each spouse or child interred at the cemetery, as specified. This bill would authorize the fee for the interment of the spouses and children of honorably discharged veterans in these cemeteries to be waived if the cemetery administrator determines that the families of the spouses or children do not have sufficient means to pay for the costs of interment, and would require any costs for these interments to be paid from nonstate funds. This bill would require the cemetery administrator to seek reimbursements, as specified, and would authorize the cemetery administrator to solicit private donations, to offset any fees lost as a result of this fee waiver.