BILL ANALYSIS ----------------------------------------------------------------------- |Hearing Date:April 19, 2010 |Bill No:SB | | |1489 | ----------------------------------------------------------------------- SENATE COMMITTEE ON BUSINESS, PROFESSIONS AND ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT Senator Gloria Negrete McLeod, Chair Bill No: SB 1489Author:Business, Professions and Economic Development Committee As Amended:April 5, 2010 Fiscal: Yes SUBJECT: Healing arts. SUMMARY: Makes several non-controversial, minor, non-substantive or technical changes to various miscellaneous provisions pertaining to the health-related regulatory boards of the Department of Consumer Affairs. Existing law: 1) Provides for licensing and regulating various professions and businesses under the Department of Consumer Affairs (DCA). 2) The Medical Practice Act provides for the licensure and regulation of physicians and surgeons by the Medical Board of California; requires the California research Bureau of the California State Library to study the role of public disclosure in the public protection mandate of the board to be completed by July 1, 2008; provides disclosure requirements for actions taken against a licensee; specifies written examination requirements for licensure. 3) The Optometry Practice Act provides for the licensure and regulation of optometrists by the State Board of Optometry; states that a candidate for licensure must pass an examination; defines the requirements for license renewal; provides the process for the renewal of a California issued optometrist license that has been delinquent for three or more years; and sets forth renewal provisions for out-of-state licensees. 4) The Occupational Therapy Practice Act provides for the licensure SB 1489 Page 2 and regulation of occupational therapists by the California Board of Occupational Therapy and provides for a loan to the Board from the General Fund. 5) The Pharmacy Law provides for the licensure and regulation of pharmacists and pharmacies by the California State Board of Pharmacy; specifies various requirements of a Veterinary Food-animal Drug Retailer; requires designation of a designated representative-in-charge (DRC) for a wholesaler or veterinary food-animal drug retailer. 6) Establishes the California Department of Heath Care Services and the California Department of Public Health. 7) Provides for the licensure and regulation of psychologists, social workers and marriage and family therapists by the Board of Behavioral Sciences; sets forth Licensed Clinical Social Worker (LCSW) licensure requirements; sets forth provisions for the acceptance of educational degrees conferred by institutions approved by the Bureau for Private Postsecondary and Vocational Education and by regional accrediting associations; sets forth Marriage and Family Therapist (MFT) licensure qualifications; provides the licensing law for Licensed Professional Clinical Counselors (LPCCs). This bill: 1) Makes the following changes pertaining to the Board of Behavioral Sciences (BBS): a) Deletes a number of obsolete sections (BPC 4980.07, 4982.2, 4984.6, & 4994) and adds BPC 4990.17 to make minor technical changes for clarity and consistency. b) Corrects a grammatical error (BPC 4984.8(d)(3)). c) Amends BPC 4996.17(c) so that the LCSW licensure requirements and qualifications are consistent. d) Clarifies the requirements for applicants who hold a valid license at the time of application (BPC 4980.80). e) Makes conforming changes that allow Associate Clinical Social Workers (ACSWs) to obtain required weekly direct supervisor contact via videoconferences in the specified settings, without a limit to those hours credited (BPC SB 1489 Page 3 4980.43(a)(10) & 4996.23(c)(5)). f) Changes the name of an accrediting association to the current correct name (BPC 4980.40.5). g) Clarifies changes to MFT intern experience requirements (BPC 4980.43). h) Clarifies the definition of unprofessional conduct as it relates to the practice of LPCCs to maintain consistency among licensees of the board (BPC 4989.54 & 4999.90(aa)). i) Adds references to the practice of LPCCs (BPC 4990.02, 4990.12, 4990.18, 4990.22, 4990.30, & 4990.38). j) Amends the LPCC unprofessional conduct provisions (BPC 4999.90(r)) to include all supervisees. aa) Clarifies unprofessional conduct relating to advertisement by a LPCC (BPC 4990.90(p)). bb) Adds subdivision BPC 4999.90(ab) to make LPCC licensing law consistent with MFT and LCSW licensing law allowing the board to take action against a licensee that has had disciplinary action against another license issued by the board. cc) Clarifies professional experience of LPCC interns so that requirements are consistent with those of other board licensees (BPC 4999.46). dd) Clarifies requirements for applicants who have held an out-of-state license for at least two years (BPC 4999.58). ee) Adds a section in LPCC licensing law relating to applicants that have held a license from another state for less than two years which is consistent with current requirements of other board licensees (BPC 4999.59). ff) Adds a reference to disciplinary action against a LPCC license issued by the board (BPC 4982.25, 4992.36). 2) Makes the following changes pertaining to the California Board of Occupational Therapy (CBOT): a) Deletes an obsolete provision (BPC 2570.19(k)). SB 1489 Page 4 b) Deletes an obsolete reference to a General Fund loan which has been repaid (BPC 2570.19 (k) and (i)). 3) Makes the following changes pertaining to the California Board of Pharmacy (CBP): a) Clarifies a reference to a designated representative-in-charge of a food-animal drug retailer (BPC 4196(e)). b) Re-establishes previously codified provisions that require remedial education after a pharmacist applicant has failed the qualifying examination four or more times (BPC 4200.1). c) Amends outdated provisions and updates references to the California Department of Public Health (CDPH) (BPC 4017, 4028, 4127.1, 4037, 4052.3(e), 4059, 4072(b), 4119(a), 4127(d), 4169, 4181(a), & 4191(a)). d) Changes an outdated reference to the Physical Therapy Examining Committee to the Physical Therapy Board of California (BPC 4059(f)). e) Amends incorrect references to "veterinary food-animal drug retailer" (BPC 4101). f) Changes outdated references from the State Department of Health Services to the Department of Health Care Services (DHCS) (BPC 4425, 4426). 4) Makes the following changes pertaining to the California State Board of Optometry (CSBO): a) Clarifies that applicants for licensure must pass two required examinations (BPC 3025.1, 3046, 3057.5). b) Clarifies the requirements for license renewal and for renewal of a license that is delinquent three or more years (BPC 3147.6, 3147.7). 5) Makes the following changes pertaining to the Medical Board of California (MBC): a) Deletes obsolete provision regarding a report produced by SB 1489 Page 5 the California Research Bureau (BPC 2026). b) Deletes obsolete references to licensing exams and updates references to the board (BPC 2065 &2177) c) Reinstates postgraduate training requirement for licensure consistent with current law (BPC 2096 & 2102). d) Deletes obsolete references to repealed BPC 2088 and updates references to the board (BPC 2103). e) Allows the board to consider licensure in another state when addressing the validity of the written examination scores required for licensure (BPC 2184). FISCAL EFFECT: Unknown. This bill is keyed "fiscal" by Legislative Counsel. COMMENTS: 1.Purpose. This bill is one of three "committee bills" authored by the Business, Professions and Economic Development Committee that are intended to consolidate a number of non-controversial provisions related to various health-related regulatory programs governed by the Business and Professions Code, and generally located within the DCA. Consolidating the provisions in one bill is designed to relieve the various licensing boards from the necessity and burden of having separate measures for a number of non-controversial revisions. Many of the provisions make minor, technical and updating changes, while other provisions are substantive changes which are intended to improve the ability of the various licensing programs to efficiently and effectively administer their respective licensing laws. However, as a committee bill, if controversy or opposition should arise regarding any provision that cannot be resolved, then that provision will be removed from the bill. This will eliminate the chance of placing any of the other provisions in jeopardy. 2.Background. The following is background and reasons given by the affected boards and professions for the provisions in this measure. a) Board of Behavioral Sciences. According to the BBS, new legislation establishing the licensure and regulation of Licensed SB 1489 Page 6 Professional Clinical Counselors (LPCCs) is the reason for the majority of their proposed amendments to add clarity and consistency to the licensing law. This new legislation went into effect January 1, 2010 ( SB 788 , Wyland, Chapter 619, Statues of 2009). The changes can be categorized into four major sections: technical cleanup; technical cleanup to new LPCC provisions to make them consistent with changes made in 2009 legislation; adding reference to LPCCs in the MFT and LCSW licensing law; and adding reference to LPCC in general provisions relating to the BBS. b) California Board of Occupational Therapy. According to CBOT, existing law provides for a loan to the CBOT from the General Fund. Since the loan has been made and repaid, this section no longer applies and is unnecessary. c) California Board of Pharmacy. According to the CBP, to keep Pharmacy Law current and to better serve licensees and consumers, the Board finds it necessary to update outdated references within the specified Business and Professions Code and to remove outdated references as to when a section is operative. In addition, SB 821 (BP&ED Committee, Chapter 307, Statutes of 2009), specified that a food-animal drug retailer must have a DRC at all times as well as the reporting requirements for the DRC. However, a drafting error resulted in several minor errors in the final version of the bill. Also in 2008 provisions which specified how many times a qualifying examination can be taken were inadvertently allowed to sunset (BPC 4200.1). This bill would reinstate those provisions. Finally, BPC4101(b) contains two incorrect references which read: "veterinary food drug-animal retailer." The correct phrase is "veterinary food-animal drug retailer." d) California State Board of Optometry. According to the CSBO, current law does not specify that certifying completion of optometric continuing education is a requirement of license renewal for optometrists in California. Current law also needs clarity on the requirements for licensure renewal for optometrists who fail to renew their license within three years after the expiration of the license. Additionally, the statute contains a typographical error when the initial language was drafted (AB 2464, Pacheco, Chapter 426, SB 1489 Page 7 Statutes of 2004) and needs to clarify that applicants for licensure must pass both licensing examinations, not just one. e) Medical Board of California. Committee Staff recommended repealing BPC 2026 because this provision is outdated and no longer necessary. According to MBC, current law does not specifically include disclosure of information related to a court order regarding Penal Code Section 23. The MBC includes such court orders in its disclosure as it is important for public protection, but has become aware that it is not in the list of items to disclose. The B&P Code needs to be amended to include any information related to an order by a court pursuant to Section 23 of the Penal Code in its list of required public disclosures. MBC also asserts that subdivision (b) of B&P Code Section 2065 contains a reference to exams that are no longer administered by the MBC. There are also references to the divisions of the MBC, but the MBC was restructured and the divisions no longer exist. The Code needs to be amended to remove the reference to the licensing exams which no longer exist within the MBC and to change the references to the "division" to instead refer to "board" to make the section consistent with existing law. In addition, the MBC states that B&P Code Section 2102 was amended incorrectly in last year's SB 819 (Yee, Chapter 308 Statutes of 2009), and the Code needs the incorrectly deleted post graduate training requirement for licensure to be reinstated. Also, Section 2103 of the B&P code needs to remove subdivision (a) so that the reference to the repealed Section 2088 is no longer included. This section also needs to change the references from "division" to "board" to make the section consistent with existing law. SUPPORT AND OPPOSITION: Support: California State Board of Pharmacy Board of Behavioral Science Board of Optometry Medical Board of California Opposition: SB 1489 Page 8 None on file as of April 8, 2010. Consultant:Antoinnae Comeaux