BILL ANALYSIS
SB 999
Page 1
Date of Hearing: June 29, 2010
ASSEMBLY COMMITTEE ON BUSINESS, PROFESSIONS AND CONSUMER
PROTECTION
Mary Hayashi, Chair
SB 999 (Walters) - As Introduced: February 9, 2010
SENATE VOTE : 33-0
SUBJECT : Occupational therapy.
SUMMARY : Prohibits the public members of the California Board
of Occupational Therapy (CBOT) from being licensees of any other
healing arts board and deletes obsolete language regarding the
Occupational Therapy Fund.
EXISTING LAW :
1)Establishes the Occupational Therapy Practice Act (Act) to be
administered by CBOT to regulate the practice of occupational
therapists (OTs) and occupational therapy assistants (OTAs).
2)States that CBOT shall be comprised of the following members:
a) Three OTs who have practiced occupational therapy for
five years.
b) One OTA who shall have assisted in the practice of
occupational therapy for five years.
c) Three public members who shall not be licentiates of CBOT,
the Board of Chiropractic Examiners or the Board of
Osteopathic Medicine.
3)States that the Governor shall appoint the three OTs and one
OTA, and the Governor, Speaker of the Assembly and Senate
Rules Committee each appoint one of the three public members.
4)Requires all members of CBOT to be residents of California and
requires the public members to be non-OTs or OTAs.
5)Sunsets CBOT on January 1, 2014.
FISCAL EFFECT : Unknown. This bill is keyed non-fiscal.
SB 999
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COMMENTS :
Purpose of this bill . According to the author's office, "CBOT,
the state agency, is governed by a seven-member board,
responsible for administration and enforcement of the [Act].
[CBOT] 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 practitioner members provide the knowledge,
education and experience of the occupational therapy profession,
without being advocates for the profession. Current law only
prohibits chiropractors or osteopathic medical doctors from
serving as public members; the exclusion of these practitioners
is not broad enough.
"The public members provide a balance to [CBOT's] practitioner
members by providing valuable public input into the public
policy decisions made by [CBOT]. 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 [CBOT]. It is necessary for public members
to truly represent the public; not another health profession.
"Healthcare professionals have education, knowledge, and
experience in their respective healthcare profession (e.g.,
physical therapists, registered nurses, licensed clinical social
workers, etc.) and from this will inherently be advocates of
their respective profession. Healthcare 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 [CBOT].
"Moreover, because of the closeness of practitioners in many
workplace settings (e.g., acute care hospital, rehabilitation
clinics, skilled nursing facility, 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), it is imperative that the public member
be a representative of the public, not be a member of another
healthcare profession."
Background . CBOT consists of seven members, five appointed by
the governor, one by the Speaker of the Assembly and one by the
Senate Rules Committee. It consists of three OTs, one OTA and
SB 999
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three public members. CBOT is required to meet at least three
times a year, in Sacramento, Los Angeles and San Francisco.
Board members serve without compensation.
CBOT members, among other things, approve regulations and help
guide licensing, enforcement, public education and consumer
protection activities.
Support . The Occupational Therapy Association of California
(OTAC) writes, "OTAC supports the prohibition of public members
being licensees of other healing arts boards and feels that
strong consumer protection occurs from representation by public
members who are not licensed as health care practitioners like
the [CBOT]."
Previous legislation . SB 1046 (Murray), Chapter 697, Statutes
of 2000, enacted the Act that created CBOT to license and
regulate OTs and OTAs. SB 1046 also included provisions
delineating the makeup of CBOT, including the three appointed
public members.
REGISTERED SUPPORT / OPPOSITION :
Support
Occupational Therapy Association of California
Opposition
None on file.
Analysis Prepared by : Rebecca May / B.,P. & C.P. / (916)
319-3301