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 disability insurers by the Department of Insurance. Existing law, known as the California Mental Health Parity Act, requires every health care service plan contract or disability insurance policy issued, amended, or renewed on or after July 1, 2000, that provides hospital, medical, or surgical coverage to provide coverage for the diagnosis and medically necessary treatment of severe mental illnesses of a person of any age, and of serious emotional disturbances of a child under the same terms and conditions applied to other medical conditions, as specified. Existing law requires those benefits to include, among other things, outpatient services, inpatient hospital services, partial hospital services, and prescription drugs, if the plan contract or policy includes coverage for prescription drugs. This bill would revise and recast those provisions, and would instead require a health care service plan contract or disability insurance policy issued, amended, or renewed on or after January 1, 2021, to provide coverage for medically necessary treatment of mental health and substance use disorders, as defined, under the same terms and conditions applied to other medical conditions. The bill would prohibit a health care service plan or disability insurer from limiting benefits or coverage for mental health and substance use disorders to short-term or acute treatment. The bill would revise the covered benefits to include basic health care services, as defined, intermediate services, and prescription drugs. This bill would require a health care service plan or disability insurer that provides hospital, medical, or surgical coverage to base medical necessity determinations and the utilization review criteria the plan or insurer, and any entity acting on the plan's or insurer's behalf, applies to determine the medical necessity of health care services and benefits for the diagnosis, prevention, and treatment of mental health and substance use disorders, on current generally accepted standards of mental health and substance use disorder care. The bill would require the health care service plan or insurer to apply specified clinical criteria and guidelines in conducting utilization review of the covered health care services and benefits and would prohibit the plan or insurer from applying different, additional, or conflicting criteria than the criteria and guidelines in the specified sources. The bill would authorize the Director of the Department of Managed Health Care or the Insurance Commissioner, as applicable, to assess administrative or civil penalties, as specified, for violation of the requirements relating to utilization review. The bill would make any provision in a health care service plan issued, delivered, amended, or renewed on or after January 1, 2021, that reserves discretionary authority to the plan, or an agent of the plan, to determine eligibility for benefits or coverage, interprets the terms of the contract, or provides standards of interpretation or review that are inconsistent with California law, void and unenforceable, as specified. The bill would declare that its provisions are severable. Because a willful violation of these requirements with respect to health care service plans would be a crime, this 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.
Sponsored bills
This measure would designate a specified portion of State Highway Route 33 in the Counties of Merced and Stanislaus as the Corporal Ronil Singh Memorial Highway. The measure would request the Department of Transportation to determine the cost of appropriate signs showing this special designation and the badge of the Newman Police Department and, upon receiving donations from nonstate sources covering that cost, to erect those signs.
Existing provisions of the California Constitution establish the University of California as a public trust under the administration of the Regents of the University of California. The California Constitution grants to the regents all the powers necessary or convenient for the effective administration of this public trust. Pursuant to the California Constitution, there are 7 ex officio members of the regents and 18 appointive members appointed by the Governor and approved by the Senate, a majority of the membership concurring. This measure would enact the University of California Equal Employment Opportunity Standards Act, which would, effective January 1, 2021, except as specified, require the regents to ensure that all contract workers, as defined, who are paid to perform support services for students, faculty, patients, or the general public at any campus, dining hall, medical center, clinic, research facility, laboratory, or other university location, are at all times subject to and afforded the same equal employment opportunity standards, as defined, as university employees performing similar services. The measure would authorize the regents, or any campus or other entity of the University of California, to contract for, or otherwise arrange to use, contract labor, as defined, to perform support services only under specified conditions, only if authorized to do so by statute, and only to the extent necessary to address one or more of prescribed needs. The measure would authorize the Legislature to enact statutes to further the purposes of, and to aid the enforcement of, this measure.
Existing law establishes a workers' compensation system, administered by the Administrative Director of the Division of Workers' Compensation, to compensate an employee for injuries sustained in the course of employment. Existing law creates a disputable presumption that specified injuries sustained in the course of employment of a specified member of law enforcement or a specified first responder arose out of and in the course of employment. Existing law allows for a claim to be presumed compensable if it has not been rejected within 90 days of filing, as specified. Existing law imposes a duty on an employer to provide certain safety materials and adopt safety practices as necessary. A failure to meet this duty, under specified circumstances, is a misdemeanor. This bill would, until July 1, 2024, define "injury," for certain state and local firefighting personnel, peace officers, certain correctional and law enforcement personnel, as described, certain health care employees who provide direct patient care at an acute care hospital, and certain fire and rescue services coordinators who work for the Office of Emergency Services to include illness or death resulting from COVID-19, that is diagnosed on or after January 1, 2020, if certain circumstances apply. The bill would create a disputable presumption, as specified, that the injury arose out of and in the course of the employment. The bill would require a claim to be presumed compensable, if not rejected within 30 days, as specified. This bill would explicitly add emergency equipment or personal protective equipment, as described, to those materials required to be provided by an employer. A failure to comply with this additional requirement would not constitute a misdemeanor. This bill would declare that it is to take effect immediately as an urgency statute.
Existing law establishes, among other housing programs, the Workforce Housing Reward Program, which requires the Department of Housing and Community Development to make local assistance grants to cities, counties, and cities and counties that provide land use approval to housing developments that are affordable to very low and low-income households. This bill, upon appropriation by the Legislature in the annual Budget Act or other statute, would require the department to administer a program to provide incentives in the form of grants allocated as provided to local governments that rezone idle sites used for a big box retailer or a commercial shopping center to instead allow the development of workforce housing. The bill would define various terms for these purposes. In order to be eligible for a grant, the bill would require a local government, among other things, to apply to the department for an allocation of grant funds and provide documentation that it has met specified requirements, including certain labor-related requirements. The bill would make the allocation of these grants subject to appropriation by the Legislature in the annual Budget Act or other statute. The bill would require the department to issue a Notice of Funding Availability for each calendar year in which funds are made available for these purposes. The bill would require that the amount of grant awarded to each eligible local government be equal to 7 times the average amount of annual sales and use tax revenue generated by each idle site identified in the local government's application over the 7 years immediately preceding the date of the local government's application, subject to certain modifications, and that the local government receive this amount in one lump-sum following the date of the local government's application. The bill, upon appropriation by the Legislature in the annual Budget Act or other statute, would authorize the department to review, adopt, amend, and repeal guidelines to implement uniform standards or criteria that supplement or clarify the terms, references, or standards for this program and exempt those guidelines from the rulemaking provisions of the Administrative Procedure Act.
The California Uniform Controlled Substances Act classifies controlled substances into 5 designated schedules, and places cannabis and cannabis products under Schedule I. The act prohibits prescribing, administering, dispensing, or furnishing a controlled substance to or for any person or animal, unless otherwise specified. This bill would create an exception to the above-described prohibition for medicinal use of cannabis on an animal pursuant to the provisions of the bill described below. Existing law, the Compassionate Use Act of 1996, an initiative measure enacted by the approval of Proposition 215 at the November 6, 1996, statewide general election, authorizes the use of cannabis for medical purposes and provides certain protections to a physician and surgeon who recommends the use of medical cannabis to a patient. The Control, Regulate and Tax Adult Use of Marijuana Act of 2016 (AUMA) , an initiative measure approved as Proposition 64 at the November 8, 2016, statewide general election, authorizes a person who obtains a state license under AUMA to engage in commercial adult-use cannabis activity pursuant to that license and applicable local ordinances. The Medicinal and Adult-Use Cannabis Regulation and Safety Act (MAUCRSA) , among other things, provides for the licensure and regulation of commercial medicinal and adult-use cannabis activities and states that the purpose and intent of MAUCRSA is to establish a comprehensive system to control and regulate the cultivation, distribution, transport, storage, manufacturing, processing, and sale of both medicinal cannabis and medicinal cannabis products for patients with a valid physician recommendation and adult-use cannabis and adult-use cannabis products for adults 21 years of age and over. MAUCRSA defines various terms for these purposes, including "medicinal cannabis," "medicinal cannabis products," "physician's recommendation," and "primary caregiver." MAUCRSA authorizes a licensed medicinal cannabis retailer to sell or transfer cannabis, cannabis products, and cannabis accessories to a person 18 years of age or older who possesses a valid government-issued identification card and either a specified valid county-issued identification card or a valid physician's recommendation for themselves or for a person for whom they are a primary caregiver. MAUCRSA provides that information contained in a physician's recommendation and received by a licensee is deemed medical information for purposes of the Confidentiality of Medical Information Act and prohibits a licensee from that information, except as specified. The Veterinary Medicine Practice Act provides for the licensure and regulation of veterinarians and the practice of veterinary medicine by the Veterinary Medical Board, which is within the Department of Consumer Affairs. The act authorizes the board to revoke or suspend the license of a person to practice veterinary medicine, or to assess a fine, for specified causes, including discussing medicinal cannabis with a client while the veterinarian is employed by, or has an agreement with, a MAUCRSA licensee and distributing advertising for cannabis in California. The act prohibits the board from disciplining a licensed veterinarian solely for discussing the use of cannabis on an animal for medicinal purposes, absent negligence or incompetence. The act requires the board, on or before January 1, 2020, to adopt guidelines for veterinarians to follow when discussing cannabis within the veterinarian-client-patient relationship. The act prohibits a licensed veterinarian from dispensing or administering cannabis or cannabis products to an animal patient. The act makes a violation of its provisions a crime. This bill would authorize a veterinarian to discuss the use of medicinal cannabis or medicinal cannabis products on an animal patient. The bill would require the board, on or before January 1, 2022, to adopt guidelines for veterinarians to follow when recommending cannabis within the veterinarian-client-patient relationship. The bill, on and after the date that the board adopts the guidelines described in the previous sentence, would authorize a veterinarian to recommend medicinal cannabis or medicinal cannabis products on an animal patient for any condition for which cannabis or cannabis products provide relief, subject to specified requirements, including that the recommendation include, at a minimum, the condition for which the recommendation is issued, the name of the client, as defined, and the name of the animal patient. The bill would prohibit a veterinarian from recommending medicinal cannabis or medicinal cannabis products on an animal patient without an appropriate examination and a medical indication. The bill also would prohibit a veterinarian from recommending medicinal cannabis or medicinal cannabis products on an animal patient while the veterinarian is employed by, or has an agreement with, a person or entity dispensing medicinal cannabis or medicinal cannabis products. The bill would prohibit the board from disciplining or denying, revoking, or suspending the license of a veterinarian solely for recommending the use of cannabis on an animal patient, and would provide that a veterinarian who makes a recommendation pursuant to these provisions is entitled to the same protections as a physician and surgeon under the Compassionate Use Act of 1996. The bill would prohibit a veterinarian from advertising that the veterinarian offers recommendations for medicinal cannabis. Because a violation of that prohibition would be a crime, the bill would impose a state-mandated local program. This bill would expand the purpose and intent of MAUCRSA to control and regulate those above-mentioned activities for medicinal cannabis for animal patients with a valid veterinarian's recommendation, as defined, and for medicinal and adult-use cannabis for medicinal use on an animal by adults 21 years of age and over, and would make conforming changes, including revising the definition of "cannabis products" to include cannabis products intended for medicinal use on an animal, and revising the definitions of "medicinal cannabis" and "medicinal cannabis product" to include cannabis and a cannabis product, respectively, intended to be sold for use on an animal patient pursuant to a veterinarian's recommendation, or intended to be sold for medicinal use on an animal by adults who are 21 years of age and older for purposes of MAUCRSA. The bill would authorize a person to purchase cannabis or cannabis products for use on an animal patient that the person owns if the person is 21 years of age or older. The bill would require cannabis or cannabis products for use on an animal patient to have cannabis as the primary active ingredient. The bill would authorize a licensed medicinal cannabis retailer to sell or transfer cannabis, cannabis products, and cannabis accessories to a person 21 years of age or older for medicinal use on an animal that the person owns. The bill would require that information contained in a veterinarian's recommendation remain a confidential part of an animal patient's record, as specified. The bill would make related findings and declarations. 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. AUMA authorizes legislative amendment of its provisions with a 23 vote of both houses, without submission to the voters, to further its purposes and intent. This bill would declare that its provisions further the purposes and intent of AUMA.
Existing law prohibits a school district from receiving a state apportionment based upon average daily attendance unless it has maintained the regular day schools of the district for at least 175 days during the next preceding fiscal year. Existing law exempts from this prohibition a school district, county office of education, or charter school that is prevented from maintaining its schools during a fiscal year for at least 175 days because of a specified emergency or other extraordinary condition. If the average daily attendance of a school district, county office of education, or charter school has been materially decreased during a fiscal year because of a specified emergency, existing law requires the Superintendent of Public Instruction to estimate the average daily attendance in a manner that credits to the school district, county office of education, or charter school approximately the total average daily attendance that would have been credited to the school district, county office of education, or charter school had the emergency not occurred. This bill would add public safety power shutoffs to the list of emergencies for which the above-described provisions apply.
Existing law requires the State Department of Public Health to conduct a program for the control of high blood pressure, also known as hypertension and that includes pulmonary hypertension. This bill would require the department to establish a pulmonary hypertension task force for the purpose of aggregating and disseminating the latest information and research relating to pulmonary hypertension, including pediatric pulmonary hypertension, as specified. The bill would specify the composition and duties of the task force, including developing and updating a comprehensive strategic plan to improve health outcomes for individuals with a diagnosis of pulmonary hypertension, including pediatric pulmonary hypertension. The bill would require the task force to submit a report to the Governor's office and the Legislature on or before January 1, 2021, and again on or before January 1, 2023. The bill would repeal these provisions on January 1, 2023.
Existing law makes it unlawful for any person to practice veterinary medicine or any branch thereof in the state unless the person holds a valid, unexpired, and unrevoked license to practice veterinary medicine, surgery, and dentistry, and the various branches of those practices, as described. Existing law makes it a misdemeanor for any person to violate, or to aid or abet in violating, any of these provisions. Existing law exempts a person from licensure and specified requirements imposed on licensees when the person engages in specified acts of veterinary care for an animal, including, among other acts, administering sodium pentobarbital for the euthanasia of sick, injured, homeless, or unwanted domestic pets or animals without the presence of a veterinarian when the person is an employee of an animal control shelter and its agencies or humane society and has received proper training in the administration of sodium pentobarbital for these purposes. This bill would expand this exception to include officers and employees of a shelter and would expand the types of veterinary care that may be provided pursuant to these provisions to include, but not be limited to, the administration of nonprescription vaccinations, pursuant to written protocols, to prevent the spread of communicable disease and administering first aid, as defined, without the presence of a veterinarian as long as the person has received the required training, as specified. The bill would require a shelter engaging in these exempted acts of veterinary care to maintain records of the care, as provided. The bill would preclude these exemptions from being construed to relieve a duly authorized officer of a shelter from the obligation to convey an injured animal to a veterinarian as specified or as otherwise necessary to provide the animal with needed veterinary care that the shelter is unable to perform in accordance with the exempted acts of veterinary care. The bill would exempt a person from licensure and specified requirements imposed on licensees when engaging in specified acts of veterinary care. By changing the scope of a crime, this bill would impose a state-mandated local program. Existing law also requires all premises, as defined, where veterinary medicine, dentistry, or surgery, or the various branches thereof, is being practiced to register with the board. This bill would require public animal shelters, shelters operated by a society for the prevention of cruelty to animals, and humane societies that offer limited veterinary services, as defined, to register with the Veterinary Medical Board as a limited veterinary premises. The bill would specify application, staffing, and operations requirements for the limited veterinary premises registration. By expanding the scope of a crime, the bill would impose as state-mandated local program. Existing law requires the initial and annual fees for registration of veterinary premises to be set by the board in an amount not to exceed $400 annually. This bill would require a limited veterinary premises to pay that fee. 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.
The Planning and Zoning Law requires each county and city to adopt a comprehensive, long-term general plan for its physical development, and the development of certain lands outside its boundaries, that includes, among other mandatory elements, a housing element. Existing law requires that the housing element include, among other things, an inventory of land suitable and available for residential development. If the inventory of sites does not identify adequate sites to accommodate the need for groups of all households pursuant to specified law, existing law requires the local government to rezone sites within specified time periods and that this rezoning accommodate 100% of the need for housing for very low and low-income households on sites that will be zoned to permit owner-occupied and rental multifamily residential use by right for specified developments. This bill, the Neighborhood Homes Act, would deem a housing development project, as defined, an allowable use on a neighborhood lot, which is defined as a parcel within an office or retail commercial zone. The bill would require the density for a housing development under these provisions to meet or exceed the density deemed appropriate to accommodate housing for lower income households according to the type of local jurisdiction, including a density of at least 20 units per acre for a suburban jurisdiction. The bill would require the housing development to meet all other local requirements for a neighborhood lot, other than those that prohibit residential use, or allow residential use at a lower density than that required by the bill. The bill would provide that a housing development under these provisions is subject to the local zoning, parking, design, and other ordinances, local code requirements, and procedures applicable to the processing and permitting of a housing development in a zone that allows for the housing with the density required by the act. The bill would also require that a housing development under these provisions comply with public notice, comment, hearing, or other procedures applicable to a housing development in a zone with the applicable density. The bill would provide that the existing zoning designation applies if the existing zoning designation for the parcel allows residential use at a density greater than that required by these provisions. The bill would require a local agency to require that a rental of any unit created pursuant to the bill's provisions be for a term longer than 30 days. The bill would authorize a local agency to exempt a neighborhood lot from these provisions in its land use element of the general plan if the local agency concurrently reallocates the lost residential density to other lots so that there is no net loss in residential density in the jurisdiction, as provided. The bill would specify that it does not alter or affect the application of any housing, environmental, or labor law applicable to a housing development authorized by these provisions, including, but not limited to, the California Coastal Act, the California Environmental Quality Act, the Housing Accountability Act, obligations to affirmatively further fair housing, and any state or local affordability laws or tenant protection laws. The bill would require an applicant of a housing development under these provisions to provide notice of a pending application to each commercial tenant of the neighborhood lot. The bill would include findings that changes proposed by the Neighborhood Homes Act address a matter of statewide concern rather than a municipal affair and, therefore, apply to all cities, including charter cities. The Housing Accountability Act, which is part of the Planning and Zoning Law, prohibits a local agency from disapproving, or conditioning approval in a manner that renders infeasible, a housing development project, as defined for purposes of the act, for very low, low-, or moderate-income households or an emergency shelter unless the local agency makes specified written findings based on a preponderance of the evidence in the record. That act states that it shall not be construed to prohibit a local agency from requiring a housing development project to comply with objective, quantifiable, written development standards, conditions, and policies appropriate to, and consistent with, meeting the jurisdiction's share of the regional housing need, except as provided. That act further provides that a housing development project or emergency shelter shall be deemed consistent, compliant, and in conformity with an applicable plan, program, policy, ordinance, standard, requirement, or other similar provision if there is substantial evidence that would allow a reasonable person to conclude that the housing development project or emergency shelter is consistent, compliant, or in conformity. The bill would provide that for purposes of the Housing Accountability Act, a proposed housing development project is consistent, compliant, and in conformity with an applicable plan, program, policy, ordinance, standard, requirement, or other similar provision if the housing development project is consistent with the standards applied to the parcel pursuant to specified provisions of the Neighborhood Homes Act and if none of the square footage in the project is designated for hotel, motel, bed and breakfast inn, or other transient lodging use, except for a residential hotel, as defined. The Planning and Zoning Law, until January 1, 2026, also authorizes a development proponent to submit an application for a multifamily housing development that is subject to a streamlined, ministerial approval process, as provided, and not subject to a conditional use permit, if the development satisfies specified objective planning standards, including a requirement that the site on which the development is proposed is zoned for residential use or residential mixed-use development, or has a general plan designation that allows residential use or a mix of residential and nonresidential uses, with at least 23 of the square footage of the development designated for residential use. Under that law, the proposed development is also required to be consistent with objective zoning standards, objective subdivision standards, and objective design review standards in effect at the time the development is submitted to the local government. This bill would permit the development to be proposed for a site zoned for office or retail commercial use if the site has had no commercial tenants on 50% or more of its total usable net interior square footage for a period of at least 3 years prior to the submission of the application. The bill would also provide that a project located on a neighborhood lot, as defined, shall be deemed consistent with objective zoning standards, objective design standards, and objective subdivision standards if the project is consistent with the applicable provisions of the Neighborhood Homes Act. The Mello-Roos Community Facilities Act of 1982 authorizes a local agency to establish a community facilities district to finance various services, including police protection, fire protection, recreation programs, and library services, and provides for the annexation of territory to an existing community facilities district. This bill would authorize an applicant seeking to develop a housing project on a neighborhood lot to request that a local agency establish a Mello-Roos Community Facilities District, or to request that the neighborhood lot be annexed to an existing community facilities district, as specified, to finance improvements and services to the units proposed to be developed. The bill would prohibit any further proceedings to be taken to annex the territory, or to authorize that annexation in the future, for a period of one year from the decision of the legislative body at the hearing on the annexation if a specified number or groups of persons, including 50% or more of the registered voters or 6 registered voters, whichever is more, residing within the territory proposed for annexation or proposed to be annexed in the future, file written protests with the legislative body. The bill would prohibit a local agency from imposing any development, impact, or mitigation fee, charge, or exaction in connection with the approval of a development project to the extent that those facilities and services are funded by a community facilities district established pursuant to these provisions. By imposing new duties on local agencies with regard to local planning and zoning, this 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.