BILL NUMBER: AB 252	INTRODUCED
	BILL TEXT


INTRODUCED BY   Assembly Member Carter
   (Principal coauthor: Senator Correa)

                        FEBRUARY 11, 2009

   An act to add Section 2417.5 to the Business and Professions Code,
relating to the practice of medicine.


	LEGISLATIVE COUNSEL'S DIGEST


   AB 252, as introduced, Carter. Practice of medicine: cosmetic
surgery: employment of physicians and surgeons.
   Existing law, the Medical Practice Act, establishes the Medical
Board of California under the Department of Consumer Affairs, which
licenses physicians and surgeons and regulates their practice.
   The Medical Practice Act restricts the employment of licensed
physicians and surgeons and podiatrists by a corporation or other
artificial legal entity, subject to specified exemptions. Existing
law makes it unlawful to knowingly make, or cause to be made, any
false or fraudulent claim for payment of a health care benefit, or to
aid, abet, solicit, or conspire with any person to do so, and makes
a violation of this prohibition a public offense.
   This bill would authorize the revocation of the license of a
physician and surgeon who practices medicine with, or serves or is
employed as the medical director of, a business organization that
provides outpatient elective cosmetic medical procedures or
treatments, as defined, knowing that the organization is owned or
operated in violation of the prohibition against employment of
licensed physicians and surgeons and podiatrists. The bill would also
make a business organization that provides outpatient elective
cosmetic medical procedures or treatments, that is owned and operated
in violation of the prohibition, and that contracts with or employs
a physician and surgeon to facilitate the offer or provision of those
procedures or treatments that may only be provided by a licensed
physician and surgeon, guilty of a violation of the prohibition
against knowingly making or causing to be made any false or
fraudulent claim for payment of a health care benefit. Because the
bill would expand a public offense, it would impose a state-mandated
local program.
   This bill would state that its provisions are declaratory of
existing law.
   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.
   Vote: majority. Appropriation: no. Fiscal committee: yes.
State-mandated local program: yes.


THE PEOPLE OF THE STATE OF CALIFORNIA DO ENACT AS FOLLOWS:

  SECTION 1.  The Legislature finds and declares that the Medical
Practice Act restricts the employment of physicians and surgeons by a
corporation or other artificial legal entity, as described in
Article 18 (commencing with Section 2400) of Chapter 5 of Division 2
of the Business and Professions Code, and that the prohibited conduct
described in subdivisions (a) and (b) of Section 2417.5 of the
Business and Professions Code, as added by this act, is declaratory
of existing law.
  SEC. 2.  Section 2417.5 is added to the Business and Professions
Code, to read:
   2417.5.  (a) In addition to any other remedies for a violation of
Section 2400 involving any other types of medical procedures, a
physician and surgeon who practices medicine with a business
organization that offers to provide, or provides, outpatient elective
cosmetic medical procedures or treatments, knowing that the
organization is owned or operated in violation of Section 2400, may
have his or her license to practice revoked. A physician and surgeon
who contracts to serve as, or otherwise allows himself or herself to
be employed as, the medical director of a business organization that
he or she does not own and that offers to provide or provides
outpatient elective cosmetic medical procedures or treatments that
may only be provided by the holder of a valid physician's and surgeon'
s certificate under this chapter shall be deemed to have knowledge
that the business organization is in violation of Section 2400.
   (b) A business organization that offers to provide, or provides,
outpatient elective cosmetic medical procedures or treatments, that
is owned or operated in violation of Section 2400, and that contracts
with, or otherwise employs, a physician and surgeon to facilitate
its offers to provide, or the provision of, outpatient elective
cosmetic medical procedures or treatments that may only be provided
by the holder of a valid physician's and surgeon's certificate is
guilty of violating paragraph (6) of subdivision (a) of Section 550
of the Penal Code.
   (c) For purposes of this section, "outpatient elective cosmetic
medical procedures or treatments" means a medical procedure or
treatment that is performed to alter or reshape normal structures of
the body solely in order to improve appearance.
  SEC. 3.  No reimbursement is required by this act pursuant to
Section 6 of Article XIII B of the California Constitution because
the only costs that may be incurred by a local agency or school
district will be incurred because this act creates a new crime or
infraction, eliminates a crime or infraction, or changes the penalty
for a crime or infraction, within the meaning of Section 17556 of the
Government Code, or changes the definition of a crime within the
meaning of Section 6 of Article XIII B of the California
Constitution.