(1) Existing law, the Confidentiality of Medical Information Act, prohibits a health care provider, a contractor, or a health care service plan from disclosing medical information, as defined, regarding a patient of the provider or an enrollee or subscriber of the health care service plan without first obtaining an authorization, except as specified. Existing law authorizes a provider of health care or a health care service plan to disclose medical information when, among other things, the information is disclosed to an insurer, employer, health care service plan, hospital service plan, employee benefit plan, governmental authority, contractor, or other person or entity responsible for paying for health care services rendered to the patient, to the extent necessary to allow responsibility for payment to be determined and payment to be made. This bill would require the disclosure of information between a county correctional facility, a county medical facility, a state correctional facility, or a state hospital to ensure the continuity of health care of an inmate being transferred between those facilities. By imposing additional duties on local entities, the bill would impose a state-mandated local program. (2) Existing law provides for certain civil rights that are retained by prisoners, including, among others, the right to correspond, confidentially, with any member of the State Bar or holder of public office, provided that prison authorities may open and inspect incoming mail to search for contraband. This bill would expressly state that those rights include, subject to the bill's provisions relating to the disclosure of specified mental health information pursuant to the provisions described above, all privacy rights legally applicable to inmates. (3) Existing law generally requires that an inmate released on parole or postrelease community supervision be returned to the county of last legal residence. Existing law requires the Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation to electronically transmit to specified county agencies an inmate's tuberculosis status, specific medical, mental health, and outpatient clinic needs, and any medical concerns or disabilities for the county to consider as the offender transitions onto postrelease community supervision for the purpose of identifying the medical and mental health needs of the individual. Existing law requires those transmissions to the county agencies to be in compliance with applicable provisions of federal law. This bill would delete the electronic transmission requirement described above and instead would require, when jurisdiction of an inmate is transferred from or between the Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation, the State Department of State Hospitals, and county agencies caring for inmates, those agencies to disclose, by electronic transmission when possible, medical, dental, and mental health information regarding each transferred or released inmate, as provided by the bill's provisions. The bill would require information to be disclosed between a county correctional facility, a county medical facility, a state correctional facility, a state hospital, or a state-assigned mental health provider to ensure the continuity of health care of an inmate being transferred between those facilities. By imposing additional duties on local entities, the bill would impose a state-mandated local program. The bill would require all transmissions made pursuant to these provisions to comply with specified provisions of state and federal law, including, among others, the Confidentiality of Medical Information Act. (4) 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, if the Commission on State Mandates determines that the bill contains costs mandated by the state, reimbursement for those costs shall be made pursuant to the statutory provisions noted above.
Sponsored bills
Existing law, the Speech-Language Pathologists and Audiologists and Hearing Aid Dispensers Licensure Act, provides for the licensure and regulation of hearing aid dispensers by the Speech-Language Pathology and Audiology and Hearing Aid Dispensers Board. A violation of the act is a crime. Under existing law, an applicant for a hearing aid dispenser license is required to take and pass a written examination and a practical examination. Existing law requires hearing aid licensees to complete at least 12 hours of continuing education, as provided. Existing law defines the "practice of fitting or selling hearing aids" as those practices used for the purpose of selection and adaptation of hearing aids, including direct observation of the ear, testing of hearing in connection with the fitting and selling of hearing aids, taking of ear mold impressions, fitting or sale of hearing aids, and any necessary postfitting counseling. Under existing law, hearing tests conducted are required to include those that are in compliance with the Food and Drug Administration Guidelines for Hearing Aid Devices and those that are specifically covered in the licensing examination prepared and administered by the board. This bill would include cerumen management and tympanometry for patients 18 years of age and older in the practice of fitting or selling hearing aids. The bill would make a licensed hearing aid dispenser who has passed his or her licensing examinations eligible to sit for a board-approved examination assessing techniques and patient safety measures in cerumen management or tympanometry. The bill would require the board to apply board-approved courses in cerumen management and tympanometry to the continuing education requirement. The bill would require the administration of cerumen management by a licensed hearing aid dispenser to occur under physician and surgeon supervision. The bill would require a licensed hearing aid dispenser to immediately refer a patient to an appropriate physician or surgeon under certain circumstances in the process of cerumen management. Because a violation of these requirements 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 Disaster Preparedness and Flood Prevention Bond Act of 2006, authorizes bonds in the amount of $4,090,000,000 for the purposes of financing disaster preparedness and flood prevention projects and makes $3,000,000,000 available, upon appropriation to the Department of Water Resources, for the evaluation, repair, rehabilitation, reconstruction, or replacement of levees, weirs, bypasses, and facilities of the State Plan of Flood Control, for improving or adding facilities to the State Plan of Flood Control to increase levels of flood protection in urban areas, and to reduce the risk of levee failure in the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta. The Budget Act of 2015 appropriates $192,795,000 to the Department of Water Resources from the Disaster Preparedness and Flood Prevention Bond Fund of 2006 for specified flood protection-related activities, including direct expenditures in cooperation with other agencies. Of the moneys appropriated to the department by the Budget Act of 2015, the bill would require the department to expend up to $110,000,000 for the upgrade of the levee system of Reclamation District No. 17 to provide the urban level of flood protection. This bill would make legislative findings and declarations as to the necessity of a special statute for Reclamation District No. 17.
Existing law provides for the licensure and regulation of various professions and vocations by boards within the Department of Consumer Affairs. This bill would state the intent of the Legislature to enact legislation that would promote and pursue programmatic changes to nursing and paramedic licensure requirements for California's military medical personnel in order to recognize the talent, skills, and training of these military medical personnel.
The Personal Income Tax Law allows various credits against the taxes imposed by that law. This bill, for taxable years beginning on or after January 1, 2017, and before January 1, 2027, would allow a credit under the Personal Income Tax Law in an amount equal to 50% of the costs paid or incurred by a qualified taxpayer, as defined to include specified teachers, to earn a clear teaching credential, as specified. The Personal Income Tax Law, in conformity with federal income tax law, generally defines gross income as income from whatever source derived, except as specifically excluded, and provides various exclusions from gross income. This bill would provide an exclusion from gross income for 50% of qualified income received on or after January 1, 2017, and before January 1, 2027, by an eligible teacher, as defined, for specified educational work. This bill would state the intent of the Legislature to enact legislation with respect to calculations for minimum amounts of funding for school districts and community colleges. This bill would take effect immediately as a tax levy.
Existing law imposes various limitations on the emissions of air contaminants for the control of air pollution from vehicular and nonvehicular sources. The State Air Resources Board has adopted a regulation to significantly reduce emissions of particulate matter, oxides of nitrogen, and other criteria air pollutants from existing diesel trucks and buses operating in the state, commonly known as the Truck and Bus Regulation. This bill would require the state board, until January 1, 2023, to deem a person, as defined, to be in compliance with the Truck and Bus Regulation and would prohibit the state board from requiring a person to expend further moneys to achieve compliance with, or from seeking to enforce against that person, that regulation if specified conditions are met.
Existing sales and use tax laws impose taxes on retailers measured by 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, measured by sales price. Those laws partially exempt from those taxes, until July 1, 2018, the gross receipts from the sale of, and the storage, use, or other consumption of, specified tangible personal property purchased for use by a qualified person, as defined, to be used primarily in manufacturing or other processes, and in research and development. Consumables with a useful life of less than one year do not qualify for exemption, and useful life is defined by reference to state income or franchise taxes. This bill, on and after January 1, 2018, and before July 1, 2028, would additionally define useful life by reference to manufacturer or other warranties, maintenance contracts, and normal replacement as established by industry or business practices, would additionally exempt from those taxes special purpose buildings and foundations used for the generation, production, storage, or distribution, as defined, of electric power, and would expand the definition of qualified person to include, among others, a person primarily engaged in the business of electric power generation. The bill would declare the intent of the Legislature to enact legislation that would improve the state's sales and use tax incentives to promote a stronger California economy by securing a greater share of the high-paying, high-skilled jobs in manufacturing and research and development. This bill would take effect immediately as a tax levy.
(1) Existing law prohibits the disclosure of the home addresses of certain public employees and officials that appear in records of the Department of Motor Vehicles, except to a court, a law enforcement agency, an attorney in a civil or criminal action under certain circumstances, and certain other official entities. This bill would extend that prohibition, subject to those same exceptions, to the disclosure of the home addresses of investigators employed by the Department of Insurance, code enforcement officers, as defined, and parking control officers, as specified. (2) Existing constitutional provisions require that a statute that limits the right of access to the meetings of public bodies or the writings of public officials and agencies be adopted with findings demonstrating the interest protected by the limitation and the need for protecting that interest. This bill would make legislative findings to that effect.
Existing law makes it a misdemeanor for any person who is required to register as a sex offender to come into any school building or upon any school grounds without lawful business and written permission from the chief administrative official of that school. This bill would delete the requirement that the registered sex offender have written permission from the chief administrative official of the school and would instead make it a misdemeanor for a registered sex offender to enter any school building or upon any school grounds without lawful business. The bill would authorize a registered sex offender who is subject to the above prohibition and who does not have the right to make educational decisions for a pupil who attends the school to enter a school building or upon school grounds to conduct lawful business at the school only when pupils are not present. The bill would authorize a person who is a registered sex offender to enter a polling place in a school building or on school grounds for the purpose of voting in an election. The bill would also authorize a registered sex offender who is subject to the above prohibition and who has the right to make educational decisions for a pupil in that school to enter a school building or upon school grounds for purposes relating to the exercise of that right. The bill would authorize a registered sex offender who is subject to the above prohibition and who has the right to make educational decisions for a pupil who attends the school to enter a school building or upon school grounds for any lawful purpose not related to the right to make educational decisions for a pupil, unless he or she has been convicted of specified crimes, except that the bill would specify that he or she may nonetheless attend a specific event if the principal or authorized administrator finds that it is in the best interest of the child and authorizes attendance. The bill would require the person to be supervised, as defined, by a school employee while in a school building or upon school grounds. The bill would exempt from its provisions any pupil who is registered as a sex offender for an offense committed as a juvenile. By changing the definition of 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.