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 ****