BILL ANALYSIS
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|Hearing Date:May 3, 2010 |Bill No:SB |
| |999 |
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SENATE COMMITTEE ON BUSINESS, PROFESSIONS
AND ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT
Senator Gloria Negrete McLeod, Chair
Bill No: SB 999Author:Walters
As Introduced: February 9, 2010 Fiscal: No
SUBJECT: Healing arts: occupational therapy.
SUMMARY: Prohibits the public members of the California Board of
Occupational Therapy from being licensees of any other healing arts
board.
Existing law:
1) Establishes the Occupational Therapy Practice Act to be
administered by the California Board of Occupational Therapy
(Board) to regulate the practice of occupational therapists.
2) States that the Board shall comprise the following members:
a) Three occupational therapists who have practiced
occupational therapy for five years.
b) One occupational therapy assistant who shall have assisted
in the practice of occupational therapy for five years.
c) Three public members who shall not be licentiates of the
board or of the Board of Chiropractic Examiners or the Board of
Osteopathic Medicine.
3) States that the Governor shall appoint the three occupational
therapists and one occupational therapy assistant, and the
Governor, Speaker of the Assembly and Senate Rules Committee each
appoint one of the three public members.
4) Requires all members of the Board to be residents of California and
requires the public board members to be non-occupational therapists
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or occupational therapy assistants.
5) Sunsets the Board on January 1, 2014.
6) Makes other technical, non-substantive, clarifying changes.
This bill prohibits any of the three public members of the Board from
being licensees of any other healing arts board and would make
technical, non-substantive, clarifying changes.
FISCAL EFFECT: None. This bill has been keyed "nonfiscal" by
Legislative Counsel.
COMMENTS:
1. Purpose. The California Board of Occupational Therapy (Board) is
the Sponsor of this measure. The Board states that it is comprised
of practitioner members and public members, who, among other
things, make disciplinary decisions regarding practitioners and set
policy for the occupational therapy profession. The Board points
out that the practitioner members provide the knowledge, education
and experience of the occupational therapy profession, without
being advocates for the profession. Although current law prohibits
chiropractors or osteopathic medical doctors from serving as public
members, this exclusion is not broad enough. The Board indicates
that public members provide a balance to the Board's practitioner
members by providing valuable public input into the public policy
decisions made by the Board. While input from all healthcare
providers is valuable to the decision-making process, it is not
necessary for other health care practitioners to serve as public
members of this Board. It is necessary for public members to truly
represent the public and not another health profession. Health
care professionals have education, knowledge, and experience in
their respective health care professions (e.g., physical
therapists, registered nurses, licensed clinical social workers,
etc.) and from this will inherently be advocates of their
respective profession. Health care professionals may find it
difficult when providing input to separate their "public member
perspective" from their "daily working hat" when voting as a public
member of the Board. Moreover, because of the closeness of
practitioners in many workplace settings (e.g., acute care
hospital, rehabilitation clinics, skilled nursing facilities, adult
day health care, developmental regional centers, elementary
schools, etc.), the similar scopes of practice, or over-lapping
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scopes of practice, (and sometimes workplace-competition for the
available reimbursement dollars), the Board believes it is
imperative that the public member be a representative of the
public , and not be a member of another health care profession.
2. Background. SB 1046 (Murray) Chapter 697, Statutes of 2000,
enacted the Occupational Therapy Practice Act that created the
Board to license and regulate occupational therapists and
occupational therapy assistants. SB 1046 also included provisions
delineating the make-up of the Board, including the three public
members that must be appointed.
SUPPORT AND OPPOSITION:
Support:
California Board of Occupational Therapy (Sponsor)
Occupational Therapy Association of California
Opposition:
None on file as of April 26, 2010
Consultant:Rosielyn Pulmano