BILL NUMBER: AB 549	INTRODUCED
	BILL TEXT


INTRODUCED BY   Assembly Member Furutani

                        FEBRUARY 25, 2009

   An act to amend Section 1264 of the Business and Professions Code,
relating to healing arts.


	LEGISLATIVE COUNSEL'S DIGEST


   AB 549, as introduced, Furutani. Licensure: clinical laboratory
personnel.
   Existing law provides for the licensure and regulation of clinical
chemists, clinical microbiologists, clinical toxicologists, clinical
molecular biologists, and clinical cytogeneticists.
   This bill would make nonsubstantive and technical changes to those
provisions.
   Vote: majority. Appropriation: no. Fiscal committee: no.
State-mandated local program: no.


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

  SECTION 1.  Section 1264 of the Business and Professions Code is
amended to read:
   1264.   (a)    The department shall issue a
clinical chemist, clinical microbiologist, clinical toxicologist,
clinical molecular biologist, or clinical cytogeneticist license to
each person who  meets the following requirements: 
    (1)     The applicant  has applied for
the license on forms provided by the department  , who
  . 
    (2)     The applicant  is a lawful
holder of a master of science or doctoral degree in the specialty for
which the applicant is seeking a license  and who has
  . 
    (3)     The applicant  has met
such   the  additional reasonable qualifications
of training, education, and experience as the department may
establish by regulations. The department shall issue an oral and
maxillofacial pathologist license to every applicant for licensure
who has applied for the license on forms provided by the department,
who is a registered Diplomate of the American Board of Oral and
Maxillofacial Pathology, and who meets any additional and reasonable
qualifications of training, education, and experience as the
department may establish by regulation. 
   (a) 
    (b)  The graduate education  required for licensure
 shall have included 30 semester hours of coursework in the
applicant's specialty. Applicants possessing only a master of science
degree shall have the equivalent of one year of full-time, directed
study or training in procedures and principles involved in the
development, modification or evaluation of laboratory methods,
including training in complex methods applicable to diagnostic
laboratory work. Each applicant must have had one year of training in
his or her specialty in a clinical laboratory acceptable to the
department and three years of experience in his or her specialty in a
clinical laboratory, two years of which must have been at a
supervisory level. The education shall have been obtained in one or
more established and reputable institutions maintaining standards
equivalent, as determined by the department, to those institutions
accredited by an agency acceptable to the department. The department
shall determine by examination that the applicant is properly
qualified. Examinations, training, or experience requirements for
specialty licenses shall cover only the specialty concerned. 

   (b) 
    (c)  The department may issue licenses without
examination to applicants who have passed examinations of other
states or national accrediting boards whose requirements are equal to
or greater than those required by this chapter and regulations
established by the department. The evaluation of other state
requirements or requirements of national accrediting boards shall be
carried out by the department with the assistance of representatives
from the licensed groups. This section shall not apply to persons who
have passed an examination by another state or national accrediting
board prior to the establishment of requirements that are equal to or
exceed those of this chapter or regulations of the department.

   (c) 
    (d)  The department may issue licenses without
examination to applicants who had met standards of education and
training, defined by regulations, prior to the date of the adoption
of implementing regulations. 
   (d) 
    (e)  The department shall adopt regulations to conform
to this section.