BILL NUMBER: AB 2188	AMENDED
	BILL TEXT

	AMENDED IN SENATE  AUGUST 20, 2010
	AMENDED IN SENATE  AUGUST 16, 2010
	AMENDED IN SENATE  JULY 15, 2010
	AMENDED IN SENATE  JUNE 17, 2010
	AMENDED IN ASSEMBLY  MAY 28, 2010
	AMENDED IN ASSEMBLY  APRIL 13, 2010

INTRODUCED BY   Assembly Members Bradford and Niello
   (Coauthors: Assembly Members Beall, Caballero, Carter, Salas, and
Solorio)

                        FEBRUARY 18, 2010

   An act to amend Sections 2708 and 3075 of the Unemployment
Insurance Code, relating to unemployment insurance, and declaring the
urgency thereof, to take effect immediately.


	LEGISLATIVE COUNSEL'S DIGEST


   AB 2188, as amended, Bradford. Unemployment compensation:
disability benefits.
   Existing law authorizes the Employment Development Department to
administer the disability compensation program. Existing law requires
the department, among other duties, to make disability benefit
payments by checks drawn on a specified bank, as provided.
   The bill would remove the requirement to pay by check and thus
allow the director to make these payments using electronic
technology.
   Existing law requires a claim for disability benefits to be
supported by a certification of a treating physician or practitioner,
and defines a practitioner as a person duly licensed or certified in
California acting within the scope of his or her license or
certification who is a dentist, podiatrist, or as to normal pregnancy
or childbirth, a midwife, nurse midwife, or a nurse practitioner.
   This bill would modify the definition of practitioner, as
prescribed.
   This bill would declare that it is to take effect immediately as
an urgency statute.
   Vote: 2/3. Appropriation: no. Fiscal committee: yes.
State-mandated local program: no.


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

  SECTION 1.  Section 2708 of the Unemployment Insurance Code is
amended to read:
   2708.  (a) (1) In accordance with the director's authorized
regulations, and except as provided in subdivision (c) and Sections
2708.1 and 2709, a claimant shall establish medical eligibility for
each uninterrupted period of disability by filing a first claim for
disability benefits supported by the certificate of a treating
physician or practitioner that establishes the sickness, injury, or
pregnancy of the employee, or the condition of the family member that
warrants the care of the employee. For subsequent periods of
uninterrupted disability after the period covered by the initial
certificate or any preceding continued claim, a claimant shall file a
continued claim for those benefits supported by the certificate of a
treating physician or practitioner. A certificate filed to establish
medical eligibility for the employee's own sickness, injury, or
pregnancy shall contain a diagnosis and diagnostic code prescribed in
the International Classification of Diseases, or, where no diagnosis
has yet been obtained, a detailed statement of symptoms.
   (2) A certificate filed to establish medical eligibility of the
employee's own sickness, injury, or pregnancy shall also contain a
statement of medical facts including secondary diagnoses when
applicable, within the physician's or practitioner's knowledge, based
on a physical examination and a documented medical history of the
claimant by the physician or practitioner, indicating the physician's
or practitioner's conclusion as to the claimant's disability, and a
statement of the physician's or practitioner's opinion as to the
expected duration of the disability.
   (b) An employee shall be required to file a certificate to
establish eligibility when taking leave to care for a family member
with a serious health condition. The certificate shall be developed
by the department. In order to establish medical eligibility of the
serious health condition of the family member that warrants the care
of the employee, the information shall be within the physician's or
practitioner's knowledge and shall be based on a physical examination
and documented medical history of the family member and shall
contain all of the following:
   (1) A diagnosis and diagnostic code prescribed in the
International Classification of Diseases, or, where no diagnosis has
yet been obtained, a detailed statement of symptoms.
   (2) The date, if known, on which the condition commenced.
   (3) The probable duration of the condition.
   (4) An estimate of the amount of time that the physician or
practitioner believes the employee is needed to care for the child,
parent, spouse, or domestic partner.
   (5) (A) A statement that the serious health condition warrants the
participation of the employee to provide care for his or her child,
parent, spouse, or domestic partner.
   (B) "Warrants the participation of the employee" includes, but is
not limited to, providing psychological comfort, and arranging "third
party" care for the child, parent, spouse, or domestic partner, as
well as directly providing, or participating in, the medical care.
   (c) The department shall develop a certification form for bonding
that is separate and distinct from the certificate required in
subdivision (a) for an employee taking leave to bond with a minor
child within the first year of the child's birth or placement in
connection with foster care or adoption.
   (d) The first and any continuing claim of an individual who
obtains care and treatment outside this state shall be supported by a
certificate of a treating physician or practitioner duly licensed or
certified by the state or foreign country in which the claimant is
receiving the care and treatment. If a physician or practitioner
licensed by and practicing in a foreign country is under
investigation by the department for filing false claims and the
department does not have legal remedies to conduct a criminal
investigation or prosecution in that country, the department may
suspend the processing of all further certifications until the
physician or practitioner fully cooperates, and continues to
cooperate with the investigation. A physician or practitioner
licensed by and practicing in a foreign country who has been
convicted of filing false claims with the department may not file a
certificate in support of a claim for disability benefits for a
period of five years.
   (e) For purposes of this part:
   (1) "Physician" has the same meaning as defined in Section 3209.3
of the Labor Code.
   (2) "Practitioner" means a person duly licensed or certified in
California acting within the scope of his or her license or
certification who is a dentist, podiatrist, or a nurse practitioner,
 after   and in the case of a nurse
practitioner, after performance of a physical examination by a nurse
practitioner and  collaboration with a physician and surgeon, or
as to normal pregnancy or childbirth, a midwife or nurse midwife
 , or nurse practitioner  .
   (f) For a claimant who is hospitalized in or under the authority
of a county hospital in this state, a certificate of initial and
continuing medical disability, if any, shall satisfy the requirements
of this section if the disability is shown by the claimant's
hospital chart, and the certificate is signed by the hospital's
registrar. For a claimant hospitalized in or under the care of a
medical facility of the United States government, a certificate of
initial and continuing medical disability, if any, shall satisfy the
requirements of this section if the disability is shown by the
claimant's hospital chart, and the certificate is signed by a medical
officer of the facility duly authorized to do so.
   (g) Nothing in this section shall be construed to preclude the
department from requesting additional medical evidence to supplement
the first or any continued claim if the additional evidence can be
procured without additional cost to the claimant. The department may
require that the additional evidence include any or all of the
following:
   (1) Identification of diagnoses.
   (2) Identification of symptoms.
   (3) A statement setting forth the facts of the claimant's
disability. The statement shall be completed by any of the following
individuals:
   (A) The physician or practitioner treating the claimant.
   (B) The registrar, authorized medical officer, or other duly
authorized official of the hospital or health facility treating the
claimant.
   (C) An examining physician or other representative of the
department.
  SEC. 2.  Section 3075 of the Unemployment Insurance Code is amended
to read:
   3075.  The director shall, without presenting vouchers and
itemized statements, withdraw from the Disability Fund any sums that
he or she deems necessary for the payment of disability benefits for
a reasonable future period. The Controller shall draw his or her
warrant for any claim presented by the director for the payment and
the Treasurer shall pay the warrant. Upon the withdrawal thereof,
those sums shall be deposited in a disability benefit payment account
in such bank or public depositary and under those conditions as the
director determines, with the approval of the Department of Finance.
The bank or public depositary shall be one in which general funds of
the state may be deposited, but no public deposit insurance charge or
premium shall be paid out of that account. Money in this account
shall be used solely to pay disability benefits by the department
pursuant to authorized regulations and no other disbursement shall be
made from that account, except that amounts erroneously and
illegally deposited in that account may be refunded. The procedure
prescribed by those regulations shall satisfy and be in lieu of any
and all statutory requirements of specific appropriation or other
form of release by state officers of money in their custody prior to
expenditure that might otherwise be applicable to withdrawals from
that account.
  SEC. 3.  This act is an urgency statute necessary for the immediate
preservation of the public peace, health, or safety within the
meaning of Article IV of the Constitution and shall go into immediate
effect. The facts constituting the necessity are:
   In order to ensure that claimants obtain disability benefits in a
timely manner, it is necessary that this act take effect immediately.