NEW LAWS 2022

NEW CALIFORNIA LAWS OF INTEREST

TO PHYSICIANS FOR 2022

The second legislative session during the COVID-19 pandemic continued to focus on pandemic-related policy issues. While the number of new laws overall is significantly reduced as compared to past years, many new and significant laws were enacted. Below is a list of new laws of interest to physicians. For information about these laws, go to www.cmadocs.org.

ALLIED HEALTH PROFESSIONALS AB 356 (Chen) – Fluoroscopy: temporary permit AB 407 (Salas) – Optometry: assistants and scope of practice AB 435 (Mullin) – Hearing aids: locked programming software: notice AB 462 (Carrillo) – Licensed Professional Clinical Counselor Act AB 691 (Chau) – Optometry: COVID-19 vaccinations and clinical laboratory tests or examinations AB 815 (Luz) – School nurses: credentialing AB 1015 (Rubio) – Board of Registered Nursing: workforce planning: nursing programs: clinical placements AB 1064 (Fong) – Pharmacy practice: vaccines: independent initiation and administration AB 1407 (Burke) – Nurses: implicit bias courses AB 1532 (Committee on Business and Professions) – Nursing AB 1533 (Committee on Business and Professions) – Pharmacy AB 1534 (Committee on Business and Professions) – California State Board of Optometry AB 1536 (Committee on Business and Professions) – Board of Vocational Nursing and Psychiatric Technicians of the State of California: vocational nursing and psychiatric technicians SB 409 (Caballero) – Pharmacy practice: testing SB 509 (Wilk) – Optometry: COVID-19 pandemic: temporary licenses SB 534 (Jones) – Dental hygienists

BROADBAND ACCESS AB 41 (Wood) – Broadband infrastructure deployment SB 4 (Gonzalez) – Communications: California Advanced Services Fund

BUDGET AB 133 (Committee on Budget) – Department of Health Care Access and Information SB 171 (Committee on Budget and Fiscal Review) – Health

CANNABIS AB 1305 (Lackey) – The Medicinal and Adult-Use Cannabis Regulation and Safety Act: exemptions SB 311 (Hueso) – Compassionate Access to Medical Cannabis Act or Ryan’s Law SB 544 (Laird) – Cannabis testing

CLINICAL LABORATORIES AB 526 (Wood) – Dentists and podiatrists: clinical laboratories and vaccines

PRIVACY AND SECURITY AB 825 (Levine) – Personal information: data breaches: genetic data AB 1184 (Chiu) – Medical information: confidentiality SB 24 (Caballero) – Domestic violence: protective orders: information pertaining to a child SB 41 (Umberg) – Privacy: genetic testing companies

COVID-19 PUBLIC HEALTH EMERGENCY AB 80 (Burke) – Taxation: Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security Act: Federal Consolidated Appropriations Act 2021 AB 263 (Arambula) – Private detention facilities and public health orders

AB 654 (Gómez Reyes) –

COVID-19: exposure: notification AB 845 (Rodriguez) – Disability retirement: COVID-19: presumption AB 856 (Maienschein) – Pupil health: COVID-19 Youth Health Information Act AB 1113 (Medina) – Public postsecondary education: exemption from tuition and fees: qualifying survivors of persons providing medical or emergency services deceased during COVID-19 California state of emergency SB 242 (Newman) – Health care provider reimbursements SB 336 (Ochoa Bogh) – Public health: COVID-19 SB 510 (Pan) – Health care coverage: COVID-19 cost sharing

ELDER AND DEPENDENT ADULTS AB 1243 (Rubio) – Protective orders: elder and dependent adults

EMERGENCY SERVICES AB 118 (Kamlager) – Department of Social Services: C.R.I.S.E.S. Grant Pilot Program AB 580 (Rodriguez) – Emergency services: vulnerable populations AB 1104 (Grayson) – Air ambulance services

END-OF-LIFE AB 439 (Bauer-Kahan) – Certificates of death: gender identity AB 1280 (Irwin) – California Hospice Licensure Act of 1990 SB 380 (Eggman) – End of life

HEALTH CARE PLANS, COVERAGE AND INSURANCE AB 237 (Gray) – Public employment: unfair practices: health protection AB 326 (Rivas) – Health care service plans: Consumer Participation Program AB 342 (Gipson) – Health care coverage: colorectal cancer: screening and testing AB 347 (Arambula) – Health care coverage: step therapy AB 532 (Wood) – Health care: fair billing policies AB 570 (Santiago) – Dependent parent health care coverage AB 789 (Low) – Health care services

AB 1020 (Friedman) – Health care debt and fair billing AB 1082 (Waldron) – California Health Benefits Review Program: extension AB 1158 (Petrie-Norris) – Alcoholism or drug abuse recovery or treatment facilities: recovery residences: insurance coverage AB 1511 (Committee on Insurance) – Insurance: omnibus SB 221 (Wiener) – Health care coverage: timely access to care SB 255 (Portantino) – Health care coverage: employer associations SB 280 (Limón) – Health insurance: large group health insurance SB 283 (Gonzalez) – Life and disability income insurance: HIV tests SB 326 (Pan) – Health care coverage: federal health care reforms SB 368 (Limón) – Health care coverage: deductibles and out-of-pocket expenses SB 428 (Hurtado) – Health care coverage: adverse childhood experiences screenings SB 535 (Limón) – Biomarker testing SB 655 (Bradford) – Insurers: diversity SB 718 (Bates) – Health care coverage: small employer groups

HEALTH CARE FACILITIES AND FINANCING AB 381 (Davies) – Licensed facilities: duties AB 450 (Gonzalez) – Paramedic Disciplinary Review Board AB 451 (Arambula) – Health care facilities: treatment of psychiatric emergency medical conditions AB 665 (Garcia, Eduardo) – Care facilities: internet access AB 749 (Nazarian) – Skilled nursing facilities: medical director certification AB 849 (Reyes) – Skilled nursing facilities: intermediate care facilities: liability AB 1042 (Jones-Sawyer) – Skilled nursing facilities: unpaid penalties: related parties AB 1422 (Gabriel) – Health facilities: critical care units: critical care unit program flexibility AB 1527 (Ting) – Seton Medical Center: seismic safety AB 1585 (Committee on Health) – Health care SB 541 (Bates) – Substance use disorder treatment facilities and programs: disclosure of license and certification status SB 564 (Cortese) – Hospitals: seismic compliance: O’Connor Hospital and Santa Clara Valley Medical Center SB 650 (Stern) – Skilled nursing facilities SB 664 (Allen) – Hospice licensure: moratorium on new licenses

MEDI-CAL SB 48 (Limón) – Medi-Cal: annual cognitive health assessment

SB 226 (Pan) – Medi-Cal: County of Sacramento

MENTAL AND BEHAVIORAL HEALTH AB 134 (Committee on Budget) – Mental Health Services Act: county program and expenditure plans AB 309 (Gabriel) – Pupil mental health: model referral protocols AB 638 (Quirk-Silva) – Mental Health Services Act: early intervention and prevention programs AB 1443 (McCarty) – Mental health: involuntary treatment AB 1477 (Cervantes) – Maternal mental health SB 14 (Portantino) – Pupil health: school employee and pupil training: excused absences: youth mental and behavioral health

SB 465 (Eggman) – Mental health SB 224 (Portantino) – Pupil instruction: mental health education SB 434 (Bates) – Substance abuse and mental health services: advertising and marketing SB 507 (Eggman) – Mental health services: assisted outpatient treatment SB 578 (Jones) – Lanterman-Petris-Short Act: hearings

PRESCRIBING AND DISPENSING SB 310 (Rubio) – Unused medications: cancer medication recycling AB 527 (Wood) – Controlled substances

PROFESSIONAL LICENSING AND DISCIPLINE AB 107 (Salas) – Licensure: veterans and military spouses AB 359 (Cooper) – Physicians and surgeons: licensure AND CME SB 801 (Archuleta) – Healing arts: Board of Behavioral Sciences: Board of Psychology: licensees SB 806 (Roth) – Healing arts

PROFESSIONAL LIABILITY SB 447 (Laird) – Civil actions: decedent’s cause of action

PUBLIC HEALTH AB 45 (Aguiar-Curry) – Industrial hemp products AB 73 (Rivas) – Health emergencies: employment safety: agricultural workers: wildfire smoke AB 653 (Waldron) – Medication-Assisted Treatment Grant Program SB 742 (Pan) – Vaccination sites: unlawful activities: obstructing, intimidating, or harassing SB 823 (Committee on Health) – Public health: omnibus bill REPORTING REQUIREMENTS AB 1094 (Arambula) – Sexual orientation and gender identity data collection pilot project AB 1204 (Wicks) – Hospital equity reporting SB 97 (Roth) – Pupil health: type 1 diabetes information: parent notification

REPRODUCTIVE HEALTH AB 367 (Garcia, Cristina) – Menstrual products AB 556 (Maienschein) – Misuse of sperm, ova, or embryos: damages AB 1356 (Bauer-Kahan) –Reproductive health care services

SB 374 (Min) – Protective orders: reproductive coercion

TELEHEALTH AB 457 (Santiago) – Protection of Patient Choice in Telehealth Provider Act

TESTING SB 306 (Pan) – Sexually transmitted disease: testing

TOBACCO AB 541 (Berman) – Tobacco assessment SB 395 (Caballero) – Excise tax: electronic cigarettes: Health Careers Opportunity Grant Program: Small and Rural Hospital Relief Program

WORKFORCE, EMPLOYMENT AND LABOR ISSUES AB 615 (Rodriguez) – Higher Education EmployerEmployee Relations Act: procedures relating to employee termination or discipline SB 331 (Leyva) – Settlement and nondisparagement agreements

“The value that CMA brings to physician practices cannot be understated. Membership is not a cost to my practice – it is an investment. I couldn’t run my practice without it.”

Tom McKenzie, M.D. Member since 1991

REIMBURSEMENT HELP: Members receive one-onone assistance from CMA’s reimbursement experts, who have recouped $33 million from payors on behalf of CMA physicians in the past 12 years. These monies represent actual physician reimbursements that would have likely gone unpaid without CMA intervention.

COVID-19: CMA understands that many physician practices are struggling in the wake of the COVID-19 outbreak. We are working closely with state and federal lawmakers to ensure physician practices remain viable, and that physician networks remain robust amid the financial uncertainty created by the COVID-19 crisis.

TELEHEALTH: Telehealth services have proven to be a critical tool for physicians so they can safely provide care to those who need it during the COVID-19 public health emergency. CMA has worked to ensure that government agencies understand the regulatory flexibilities necessary so that physicians can continue serving patients during the COVID-19 pandemic. From telehealth flexibility and payment parity, to waivers on privacy and security requirements to expedite the incorporation of telehealth into practice workflows, CMA has been at the table making sure policymakers understand the needs of physicians and their patients.

PHYSICIAN WELL-BEING: CMA believes physician well-being and professional fulfillment are critical factors in maintaining patient access to quality care, and we must address this challenge at the organizational and systemic level. CMA’s Wellness Program launched Care 4 Caregivers Now in March 2020 to provide physicians with one-on-one emotional support from trained medical professionals in a safe, confidential and non-judgmental space.

EXPERT GUIDANCE: Staffed by experts with a combined experience of over 125 years in medical practice operations, CMA’s Center for Economic Services empowers physicians by providing resources and guidance to improve the success of their medical practices. Whether it’s identifying and fighting unfair payment practices, improving the efficiency of your practice, or guiding physicians through the contract evaluation and negotiation process, CMA has tools and resources to help.

QUESTIONS?CMA’s live-person call center is available Monday through Friday during business hours at (800) 786-4262 or via live chat at cmadocs.org.

OUT-OF-NETWORK BILLING: California’s out-of-network billing and payment law (AB 72, 2017) changed the billing practices of non-participating physicians providing non-emergent care at in-network facilities including hospitals, ambulatory surgery centers and laboratories. CMA has dedicated significant resources to achieve the best possible outcomes for physicians under the new billing restrictions. CMA has also developed resources to help physicians navigate this new law.

HEALTH LAW LIBRARY: Updated annually, CMA’s online Health Law Library contains nearly 5,000 pages of information on a variety of subjects of importance to practicing physicians. The library – available free to members – includes content from the California Physician’s Legal Handbook, as well as more specialized information on peer review, payor contracting and other topics.

PAYOR CONTRACT ANALYSIS: CMA members have free access to objective written analyses of major health plan contracts designed to help physicians understand their rights and options when contracting with third-party payors, as well as which contract provisions are prohibited by California law.

WEBINAR SERIES: CMA’s webinar series gives physicians the opportunity to watch online presentations on important topics of interest and interact with legal and financial experts from the comfort of their homes or offices. The webinars are free to CMA members and their staff. CMA also has 100+ archived on-demand webinars.

SEMINAR SERIES: Experts from CMA’s various centers travel to local county medical societies throughout the state, holding live seminars for members and their staff on a variety of issues. Contact your local county medical society for more information.

NEWSLETTERS: CMA produces publications to keep members up-to-date on the latest health care news and information affecting the practice of medicine in California. Subscribe to any of these newsletters online at cmadocs.org/newsletters.

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Rev. 12.14.2020