Under the federal Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (PPACA) , each state is required, by January 1, 2014, to establish an American Health Benefit Exchange that makes available qualified health plans to qualified individuals and small employers. Existing state law establishes the California Health Benefit Exchange (Exchange) within state government, specifies the powers and duties of the board governing the Exchange, and requires the board to facilitate the purchase of qualified health plans through the Exchange by qualified individuals and small employers by January 1, 2014. Under the California Public Records Act (CPRA) , public records of state and local agencies are open to public inspection, as specified, unless a record is exempt from disclosure. Existing law exempts specified records of the Exchange from CPRA and requires, except for the portion of a contract that contains the rates of payment, contracts entered into, and amendments to contracts entered into, by the board to be open to inspection after one year. This bill would instead make open to public inspection the impressions, opinions, recommendations, meeting minutes, research, work product, theories, or strategy of the board or its staff, or records that provide instructions, advice, or training to employees. The bill would provide that the one year exemption from disclosure for contracts with participating carriers apply to those contracts entered into on or after the effective date of the bill. The bill would also require that the portion of the contract or amendment containing the rates of payment be open to inspection 3 years after a contract or amendment is open to inspection pursuant to these provisions. This bill would declare that it is to take effect immediately as an urgency statute.
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Existing law requires the transferor of residential property to make certain disclosures to a prospective transferee and requires these disclosures to be made on a specified form. This bill would revise the transfer disclosure form to additionally disclose to a potential transferee specified claims for damages by the seller. The bill would make its provisions operative on July 1, 2014.
(1) Existing law classifies certain controlled substances into designated schedules. Existing law requires the Department of Justice to maintain the Controlled Substance Utilization Review and Evaluation System (CURES) for the electronic monitoring of the prescribing and dispensing of Schedule II, Schedule III, and Schedule IV controlled substances by all practitioners authorized to prescribe or dispense these controlled substances. Existing law requires dispensing pharmacies and clinics to report, on a weekly basis, specified information for each prescription of Schedule II, Schedule III, or Schedule IV controlled substances, to the department, as specified. This bill would establish the CURES Fund within the State Treasury to receive funds to be allocated, upon appropriation by the Legislature, to the Department of Justice for the purposes of funding CURES, and would make related findings and declarations. This bill would, beginning April 1, 2014, require an annual fee of $6 to be assessed on specified licensees, including licensees authorized to prescribe, order, administer, furnish, or dispense controlled substances, and require the regulating agency of each of those licensees to bill and collect that fee at the time of license renewal. The bill would authorize the Department of Consumer Affairs to reduce, by regulation, that fee to the reasonable cost of operating and maintaining CURES for the purpose of regulating those licensees, if the reasonable regulatory cost is less than $6 per licensee. The bill would require the proceeds of the fee to be deposited into the CURES Fund for the support of CURES, as specified. The bill would also permit specified insurers, health care service plans, qualified manufacturers, and other donors to voluntarily contribute to the CURES Fund, as described. (2) Existing law requires the Medical Board of California to periodically develop and disseminate information and educational materials regarding various subjects, including pain management techniques, to each licensed physician and surgeon and to each general acute care hospital in California. This bill would additionally require the board to periodically develop and disseminate to each licensed physician and surgeon and to each general acute care hospital in California information and educational materials relating to the assessment of a patient's risk of abusing or diverting controlled substances and information relating to CURES. (3) Existing law permits a licensed health care practitioner, as specified, or a pharmacist to apply to the Department of Justice to obtain approval to access information stored on the Internet regarding the controlled substance history of a patient under his or her care. Existing law also authorizes the Department of Justice to provide the history of controlled substances dispensed to an individual to licensed health care practitioners, pharmacists, or both, providing care or services to the individual. This bill would require, by January 1, 2016, or upon receipt of a federal Drug Enforcement Administration registration, whichever occurs later, health care practitioners authorized to prescribe, order, administer, furnish, or dispense controlled substances, as specified, and pharmacists to apply to the Department of Justice to obtain approval to access information stored on the Internet regarding the controlled substance history of a patient under their care. The bill would require the Department of Justice, in conjunction with the Department of Consumer Affairs and certain licensing boards, to, among other things, develop a streamlined application and approval process to provide access to the CURES database for licensed health care practitioners and pharmacists. The bill would make other related and conforming changes.
Under existing law, the family temporary disability insurance program provides up to 6 weeks of wage replacement benefits to workers who take time off work to care for a seriously ill child, spouse, parent, domestic partner, or to bond with a minor child within one year of the birth or placement of the child in connection with foster care or adoption. These benefits are payable for family temporary disability leaves that begin on and after July 1, 2004. This bill would, beginning on July 1, 2014, expand the scope of the family temporary disability program to include time off to care for a seriously ill grandparent, grandchild, sibling, or parent-in-law, as defined. The bill would also make conforming and clarifying changes in provisions relating to family temporary disability compensation. Under existing law, workers are required to pay contributions to the Unemployment Compensation Disability Fund, a special fund in the State Treasury, and those funds are continuously appropriated for the purpose of providing disability benefits and making payment of expenses in administering those provisions. This bill, by authorizing expenditure of money in the Unemployment Compensation Disability Fund for a new purpose, would make an appropriation.
Existing law provides that a search warrant may only be issued upon probable cause, supported by affidavit, naming or describing the person to be searched or searched for, and particularly describing the property, thing, or things and the place to be searched. Existing law also states the grounds upon which a search warrant may be issued, including, among other grounds, when the property or things to be seized consist of any item or constitute any evidence that tends to show a felony has been committed, or tends to show that a particular person has committed a felony, or when there is a warrant to arrest a person. This bill would additionally authorize the issuance of a search warrant to authorize a blood draw from a person in a reasonable, medically approved manner when the sample constitutes evidence that tends to show that the person has violated specified provisions related to driving under the influence, and the person has refused an officer's request to submit to, or has failed to complete, a blood test, as specified. This bill would declare that it is to take effect immediately as an urgency statute.
This measure would designate the Willow Avenue Overcrossing over State Highway Route 4 in Contra Costa County as the Joe Eddy McDonald Memorial Overcrossing. The measure would also request the Department of Transportation to determine the cost of appropriate signs showing this special designation and, upon receiving donations from nonstate sources covering that cost, to erect those signs.
This measure would urge the United States Congress to pass legislation that reflects the value and intent set forth in the Postal Service Protection Act of 2013, as introduced, in order to ensure the modernization and preservation of the United States Postal Service.
Existing law provides various circumstances that constitute oral copulation against an individual's will and sexual penetration against an individual's will, including an act accomplished with an individual who is not the spouse of the perpetrator where the individual submits under the belief that the individual committing the act is the victim's spouse, and this belief is induced by artifice, pretense, or concealment practiced by the accused, with the intent to induce the belief. This bill would instead provide that these types of oral copulation and sexual penetration occur where the individual submits under the belief that the individual committing the act is someone known to the victim other than the accused. By expanding the definition of 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. This bill would declare that it is to take effect immediately as an urgency statute.
Existing law defines a public work as construction, alteration, demolition, installation, or repair work done under contract and paid for in whole or in part out of public funds; work done for irrigation, utility, reclamation, and improvement districts, and other districts of this type; street, sewer, or other improvement work done under the direction and supervision or by the authority of any officer or public body of the state; or of any political subdivision or district thereof, and public transportation demonstration projects, as specified. This bill would allow a public agency, principally tasked with administering, planning, developing, and operating a public works project, to establish a specified peer review group, as defined, and would require the administering agency, if a peer review group is established, to draft a charter, published on the agency's Internet Web site, related to the duties of the peer review group.