BILL ANALYSIS
------------------------------------------------------------
|SENATE RULES COMMITTEE | SB 999|
|Office of Senate Floor Analyses | |
|1020 N Street, Suite 524 | |
|(916) 651-1520 Fax: (916) | |
|327-4478 | |
------------------------------------------------------------
THIRD READING
Bill No: SB 999
Author: Walters (R)
Amended: As introduced
Vote: 21
SENATE BUSINESS, PROF. & ECON. DEV. COMMITTEE : 8-0, 5/3/10
AYES: Negrete McLeod, Wyland, Aanestad, Correa, Florez,
Oropeza, Walters, Yee
NO VOTE RECORDED: Calderon
SUBJECT : Healing arts: occupational therapy
SOURCE : California Board of Occupational Therapy
DIGEST : This bill prohibits the public members of the
California Board of Occupational Therapy from being
licensees of any other healing arts board.
ANALYSIS :
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:
CONTINUED
SB 999
Page
2
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 or occupational therapy
assistants.
5. Sunsets the Board on January 1, 2014.
This bill prohibits any of the three public members of the
Board from being licensees of any other healing arts board
and makes technical, nonsubstantive, clarifying changes.
Comments
The Board is the sponsor of this bill. 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
SB 999
Page
3
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 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.
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.
FISCAL EFFECT : Appropriation: No Fiscal Com.: No
Local: No
SUPPORT : (Verified 5/5/10)
California Board of Occupational Therapy (source)
Occupational Therapy Association of California
JJA:mw 5/4/10 Senate Floor Analyses
SB 999
Page
4
SUPPORT/OPPOSITION: SEE ABOVE
**** END ****