Existing law, the Telemedicine Development Act of 1996, regulates the practice of telemedicine, defined as the practice of health care delivery, diagnosis, consultation, treatment, transfer of medical data, and education using interactive audio, video, or data communications, by a health care practitioner, as defined. Existing law establishes that it is the intent of the Legislature that the Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation operate in the most cost-effective and efficient manner possible when purchasing health care services for inmates. This bill would declare the Legislature's findings on the use of telemedicine in the state's prisons. The bill would require the department to establish guidelines for the use of telemedicine consultations, use telemedicine for all appropriate consultations, make use of existing external telemedicine resources, maintain current prison telemedicine programs, as specified, and establish annual performance targets regarding the use of telemedicine in prisons.
Sponsored bills
Existing law establishes the California State University and its various campuses under the administration of the Trustees of the California State University. Existing law requires the California State University to offer undergraduate and graduate instruction through the master's degree in the liberal arts and sciences and professional education, including teacher education. This bill would authorize the California State University to award the Doctor of Nursing Practice degree. The bill would distinguish the Doctor of Nursing Practice degree from the doctor of philosophy degree offered at the University of California. The bill would require the Doctor of Nursing Practice degree program to be designed to enable professionals to earn the degree while working full time, train nurses for advanced practice, and prepare clinical faculty to teach in postsecondary nursing programs. The bill would require initial funding to come from existing budgets, without diminishing the quality of undergraduate programs or reducing enrollment therein. The bill would require the California State University to annually report on the status of the Doctor of Nursing Practice degree program, as specified.
Existing law establishes the Carl Moyer Memorial Air Quality Standards Attainment Program (Carl Moyer program) , which is administered by the State Air Resources Board, to provide grants to offset the incremental cost of eligible projects that reduce emissions of air pollutants from sources in the state. Under the Carl Moyer program, the state board is authorized to provide funding for, among other things, eligible heavy-duty fleet modernization projects, including a project that replaces an old engine or vehicle with a newer engine or vehicle certified to more stringent emissions standards than the engine or vehicle being replaced. The bill would require the state board to develop and implement a trade-down program that provides assistance to owners of high-use, newer model, heavy-duty fleet vehicles to convert those vehicles for lower use, commercial operations in a manner that reduces emissions of oxides of nitrogen and particulate matter. The bill would provide that the trade-down program would be eligible for funding under the Carl Moyer program as an eligible heavy-duty fleet modernization project if it meets a specified criterion.
Existing law requires certain persons specified as "mandated reporters" to report suspected child abuse or child neglect, as specified, and provides that failure to report as required is an offense. This bill would include employees in public libraries as mandated reporters, for purposes of reporting the use of computers in public libraries, discovered in the course of their duties, to access, on the Internet or from other sources, any material that would constitute depictions of sexual exploitation, as described. By expanding the list of mandated reporters, for whom the failure to report specified conduct is 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.
Existing law establishes the Medi-Cal program, administered by the State Department of Health Care Services, under which basic health care services are provided to qualified low-income persons. Existing law creates the continuously appropriated Medical Providers Interim Payment Fund, for the purposes of paying Medi‑Cal providers, providers of drug treatment services for persons infected with HIV, and providers of services for the developmentally disabled, on and after July 1, and before September 1, of the fiscal year for which a budget has not yet been enacted or there is a deficiency in the Medi‑Cal budget in any fiscal year, and appropriates, for each fiscal year in which these payments are necessary, up to $1,000,000,000 from the General Fund, in the form of loans, and $1,000,000,000 from the Federal Trust Fund to the Medical Providers Interim Payment Fund. This bill would, instead, provide that these transfers to the Medical Providers Interim Payment Fund shall be in an amount sufficient to make continued payments to the above-described providers on or after July 1 of the fiscal year for which no budget has been enacted until the date upon which a budget is enacted for that year or when there is a deficiency in the Medi-Cal budget. To the extent that the bill would increase the amount transferred into a continuously appropriated fund, this bill would make an appropriation. Under existing law, notwithstanding any other provision of law, and to the extent not otherwise conflicting with federal law, the department is authorized to hold, or direct the medical fiscal intermediary for the Medi-Cal program to hold, payments for Medi-Cal providers, as described, for a period of one month for a month ending prior to June 30, 2009. This bill would delete the above provisions. This bill would declare that it is to take effect immediately as an urgency statute.
Existing law requires an operator of a commercial Internet Web site or online service that collects personally identifiable information through the Internet about individual consumers residing in California who use or visit its commercial Internet Web site or online service to conspicuously post its privacy policy on its Internet Web site. This bill would require an Internet company to remove visual material that depicts the commission of a violent or serious felony, as specified, upon the written or electronic request of the victim, next of kin, member of the victim's immediate family, or a representative designated by the victim or victim's immediate family.
The Personal Income Tax Law authorizes various credits against the taxes imposed by that law, including a credit in an amount equal to 50% of specified adoption costs, not to exceed $2,500 per minor child who is a citizen or legal resident of the United States and who is in the custody of a public agency in this state. This bill would, for taxable years beginning on or after January 1, 2010, and before January 1, 2015, increase the credit limitation to a maximum of $5,000 with respect to the adoption of a minor child, as described, who is over 12 years of age or who was living in a group home or residential treatment facility, as defined, for a period of at least 6 months within 18 months prior to the time the adoption is completed. This bill would take effect immediately as a tax levy.
The Donahoe Higher Education Act sets forth, among other things, the missions and functions of California's public and independent segments of higher education, and their respective institutions of higher education. The act applies to the University of California only to the extent that the Regents of the University of California, by appropriate resolution, act to make the act applicable. Existing law requires that a person, other than a nonimmigrant alien, as defined, who has attended high school in California for 3 or more years, who has graduated from a California high school or attained the equivalent thereof, who has registered at or attends an accredited institution of higher education in California not earlier than the fall semester or quarter of the 2001–02 academic year, and who, if he or she is a person without lawful immigration status, has filed a prescribed affidavit relating to obtaining lawful immigration status, is exempt from paying nonresident tuition at the California Community Colleges and the California State University. Existing law also requires the waiver of student fees charged by community college districts for students who demonstrate financial need or are otherwise eligible for the waiver. Existing law requires the Board of Governors of the California Community Colleges to allocate, to community college districts for determining financial need and delivering student financial aid services, an amount based on the amount of fees waived. This bill would amend the Donahoe Higher Education Act to require the Trustees of the California State University and the Board of Governors of the California Community Colleges, and to request the Regents of the University of California, to establish procedures and forms that enable persons who are exempt from paying nonresident tuition under that provision, or who meet equivalent requirements adopted by the regents, to be eligible to receive institutional financial aid awards. The bill would define institutional financial aid as financial assistance offered by a campus of the California Community Colleges, California State University, or University of California, including grant, scholarship, workstudy, and loan programs. The bill would specify that institutional financial aid does not include a specified board of governors fee waiver. The bill would declare that it is a state law within the meaning of a federal statute that permits a state to provide an alien who is not lawfully present in the United States with eligibility for a state or local public benefit only through the enactment of a state law affirmatively providing for that eligibility. The bill would apply to the University of California only if the regents, by appropriate resolution, act to make it applicable.
The Sales and Use Tax Law imposes 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, and provides various exemptions from the taxes imposed by that law. This bill would exempt from a specified portion of those taxes, for calendar years beginning on and after January 1, 2011, the gross receipts from the sale of, and the storage, use, or other consumption in this state of, sustainable development equipment investments of tangible personal property purchased for use by a qualified person, as specified, and tangible personal property used primarily during the research and development process on qualified research. The bill would also exempt from a specified portion of those taxes, for calendar years beginning on and after January 1, 2013, the gross receipts from the sale of, and the storage, use, or other consumption of, tangible personal property purchased by a qualified person for use primarily in any stage of the manufacturing, processing, refining, fabricating, or recycling of property, as specified, and tangible personal property purchased for use by a contractor purchasing that property for use in the performance of a construction contract for the qualified person who will use the property as an integral part of the manufacturing, processing, refining, fabricating, or recycling process, or as a storage facility for use in connection with the manufacturing process. This bill would specify that this exemption does not apply to local sales and use taxes or transactions and use taxes. This bill would take effect immediately as a tax levy.
Existing federal law requires the federal government to compensate a state for the costs of incarcerating undocumented criminal illegal aliens, or to take the undocumented criminal alien into federal custody, as specified. This bill would require the Secretary of the Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation to annually bill the federal government for the costs of incarcerating undocumented criminal aliens within California's correctional system. The bill would require the Attorney General to utilize all available legal resources to obtain compliance with payment of the written bill if the federal government fails to make payment. This bill would also require the Department of Justice to collect data on the total number of, and percentage of, undocumented alien inmates in all state and local correctional institutions in the state and to publish the data on its Internet Web site. The data would be required to be annually updated and published.