BILL ANALYSIS                                                                                                                                                                                                    Ó



                                                                  SB 946
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          Date of Hearing:   August 17, 2011

                        ASSEMBLY COMMITTEE ON APPROPRIATIONS
                                Felipe Fuentes, Chair

              SB 946 (Committee on Health) - As Amended:  May 10, 2011 

          Policy Committee:                             HealthVote:18-0

          Urgency:     No                   State Mandated Local Program: 
          Yes    Reimbursable:              Yes

           SUMMARY  

          This bill makes various technical and non-controversial changes 
          to statutes governing telemedicine, emergency medical services 
          (EMS) funds, food safety, HIV reporting, health information 
          privacy, health insurance, and mental health services payments.  
          Specifically, this bill:  

          1)Deletes references to "telemedicine" in various statutes and 
            replaces them with the term "telehealth."

          2)Deletes obsolete reporting requirements imposed on the 
            Department of Health Care Services (DHCS) related to the 
            application of telemedicine, including store-and-forward 
            telemedicine.

          3)Requires each county that has established a Maddy EMS Fund to 
            include a description of each disbursement for other EMS 
            purposes in its annual report to the Legislature, if funds 
            were disbursed for these purposes, and other additional 
            information, as specified, regarding the monies collected and 
            disbursed.

          4)Updates the California Retail Food Code (CRFC) to define the 
            term "hot dog;" require food service employees to wash their 
            hands prior to donning gloves for working with food or 
            replacing gloves that need to be changed or replaced; prohibit 
            single-use gloves from being washed; and, establish sanitation 
            requirements for food service employees with lesions or open 
            wounds.   

          5)Authorizes the Department of Public Health (DPH) to develop a 
            form to be used to report cases of HIV infection to the local 








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            health department and permits the form to be implemented 
            without promulgating new regulations.

          6)Renames the Office of Health Insurance Portability and 
            Accountability Act (HIPAA) Implementation as the California 
            Office of Health Information Integrity (CalOHII).  

          7)Deletes a redundant code section requiring CalOHII to be under 
            the supervision of a director appointed by the Secretary of 
            Health and Human Services Agency and eliminates obsolete 
            reporting requirements. 

          8)Modifies the frequency with which the existing advisory 
            committee on statewide HIPAA implementation meets from at 
            least twice a year to an "as required" basis.

          9)Revises specified sections of the Insurance Code relating to 
            coverage for a child to replace references to "solicitor" with 
            "agent or broker" or "agent or broker of the carrier."

          10)Conforms state law to existing federal regulations and 
            current practice of the Department of Mental Health (DMH) with 
            regard to negotiated rates and incentive payments for the 
            provision of Medi-Cal reimbursable community mental health 
            services. 

          11)Makes other minor technical changes to correct drafting and 
            grammatical errors.

           FISCAL EFFECT  

          Minor, if any, state reimbursable mandate costs associated with 
          increased reporting requirements related to county-based Maddy 
          EMS funds.  Other provisions of this bill will have negligible 
          state fiscal impact.

           COMMENTS  

           Rationale  .  This bill is authored by the Senate Committee on 
          Health as omnibus legislation containing technical and/or 
          non-controversial changes to laws affecting various health 
          agencies, programs, and services.  

           Analysis Prepared by  :    Lisa Murawski / APPR. / (916) 319-2081 









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