AB 496, as amended, Gordon. Medicine: sexual orientation, gender identity, and gender expression.
Existing law creates the Task Force on Culturally and Linguistically Competent Physicians and Dentists. Existing law requires the Director of Health Care Services and the Director of Consumer Affairs to serve as cochairs of the task force. Existing law requires that the task force consist of, among other people, the Executive Director of the Medical Board of California and the Executive Director of the Dental Board of California. Existing law additionally requires the Director of Consumer Affairs, in consultation with the Director of Health Care Services, to appoint as task force members, among other people, California licensed physicians and dentists who provide health services to members of language and ethnic minority groups and representatives of organizations that advocate on behalf of, or provide health services to, members of language and ethnic minority groups. Existing law required the task force to report its findings to the Legislature and appropriate licensing boards by January 1, 2003.
This bill would replace the Director of Health Care Services with the Deputy Director of the Office of Health Equity, or his or her designee, as cochair of the task force. The bill would also instead require the appointment of members to be made in consultation with the Office of Health Equity. The bill would authorize a designee of the Director of Consumer Affairs to serve as cochair of the task force and would authorize designees of the Executive Director of the Medical Board of California and the Executive Director of the Dental Board of California to serve as task force members. The bill would require the licensed task force members and advocate task force members to be providers of health services to, or advocates on behalf of, members of language and ethnic minority groups as well as lesbian, gay, bisexual,begin delete and transgenderend deletebegin insert
transgender, and intersexend insert groups. The bill would require the task force to report its findings to the Legislature and appropriate licensing boards by January 1, 2016.
Existing law, the Cultural and Linguistic Competency of Physicians Act of 2003, establishes the cultural and linguistic physician competency program which is operated by local medical societies of the California Medical Association and is monitored by the Medical Board of California. That voluntary program consists of educational classes for all interested physicians and is designed to teach foreign language and cultural beliefs and practices that may impact patient health care practices and allow physicians to incorporate this knowledge in the diagnosis and treatment of patients who are not from the predominate culture in California.begin delete Existing law also defines “cultural and linguistic competency” for the purposes of those provisions as meaning cultural and linguistic
abilities that can be incorporated into therapeutic and medical evaluation and treatment, including understanding and applying the roles that culture, ethnicity, and race play in diagnosis, treatment, and clinical care, and awareness of how the attitudes, values, and beliefs of health care providers and patients influence and impact professional and patient relations.end delete
This bill would additionally require the program to address lesbian, gay, bisexual,begin delete and transgenderend deletebegin insert transgender, and intersexend insert groups of interest to local medical societies. The bill would require the training programs to be formulated in collaboration with California-based lesbian, gay, bisexual,begin delete and transgenderend deletebegin insert
transgender, and intersexend insert medical societies.begin delete Theend delete
Existing law requires local medical societies to develop and distribute a survey for language minority patients to measure the degree of satisfaction with physicians who have taken the educational classes on cultural and linguistic competency described above.
end insertbegin insertThis bill would also require local medical societies to develop and distribute a similar survey to lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and intersex patients.
end insertbegin insertExisting law also defines “cultural and linguistic competency” for the purposes of those provisions as meaning cultural and linguistic abilities that can be incorporated into therapeutic and medical evaluation and treatment, including understanding and applying the roles that culture, ethnicity, and race play in diagnosis, treatment, and clinical care, and awareness of how the attitudes, values, and beliefs of health care providers and patients influence and impact professional and patient relations.
end insert
begin insertThisend insert
bill wouldbegin delete alsoend delete redefine the term “cultural and linguistic competency”begin delete asend deletebegin insert to also includeend insert understanding and applying the roles thatbegin delete culture, ethnicity, race,end delete sexual orientation, gender identity, and gender expression play in diagnosis, treatment, and clinical care, andbegin delete awareness of how the attitudes, values, and beliefs of health care providers, patients, and society influence and impact professional and patient relationsend deletebegin insert developing behaviors that increase a patient’s satisfaction
with, and trust in, his or her physicians and health care institutionsend insert. The bill would also make related technical, nonsubstantive changes.
Vote: majority. Appropriation: no. Fiscal committee: yes. State-mandated local program: no.
The people of the State of California do enact as follows:
Section 852 of the Business and Professions Code
2 is amended to read:
(a) The Task Force on Culturally and Linguistically
4Competent Physicians and Dentists is hereby created and shall
5consist of the following members:
6(1) The Deputy Director of the Office of Health Equity, or his
7or her designee, and the Director of Consumer Affairs, or his or
8her designee, who shall serve as cochairs of the task force.
9(2) The Executive Director of the Medical Board of California,
10
or his or her designee.
P4 1(3) The Executive Director of the Dental Board of California,
2or his or her designee.
3(4) One member appointed by the Senate Committee on Rules.
4(5) One member appointed by the Speaker of the Assembly.
5(b) Additional task force members shall be appointed by the
6Director of Consumer Affairs, in consultation with the Office of
7Health Equity, as follows:
8(1) Representatives of organizations that advocate on behalf of
9California licensed physicians and dentists.
10(2) California licensed physicians and dentists
who provide
11health services to members of language and ethnic minority groups,
12as well as lesbian, gay, bisexual,begin delete and transgenderend deletebegin insert transgender, and
13intersexend insert groups.
14(3) Representatives of organizations that advocate on behalf of,
15or provide health services to, members of language and ethnic
16minority groups, as well as lesbian, gay, bisexual,begin delete and transgenderend delete
17begin insert transgender, and intersex end insert groups.
18(4) Representatives of entities that offer continuing
education
19for physicians and dentists.
20(5) Representatives of California’s medical and dental schools.
21(6) Individuals with experience in developing, implementing,
22monitoring, and evaluating cultural and linguistic programs.
23(c) The duties of the task force shall include the following:
24(1) Developing recommendations for a continuing education
25program that includes language proficiency standards of foreign
26language to be acquired to meet linguistic competency.
27(2) Identifying the key cultural elements necessary to meet
28cultural competency by physicians, dentists, and their offices.
29(3) Assessing the need for voluntary certification standards and
30
examinations for cultural and linguistic competency.
31(d) The task force shall hold hearings and convene meetings to
32obtain input from persons belonging to language and ethnic
33minority groups, as well as lesbian, gay, bisexual,begin delete and transgenderend delete
34begin insert transgender, and intersex end insertgroups, to determine their needs and
35preferences for having culturally competent medical providers.
36These hearings and meetings shall be convened in communities
37that have large populations of language and ethnic minority groups,
38as well as lesbian, gay, bisexual,begin delete and transgenderend deletebegin insert
transgender, and
39intersexend insert groups.
P5 1(e) The task force shall report its findings to the Legislature and
2appropriate licensing boards on or before January 1, 2016.
3(f) The Medical Board of California and the Dental Board of
4California shall pay the state administrative costs of implementing
5this section.
6(g) Nothing in this section shall be construed to require
7mandatory continuing education of physicians and dentists.
Section 2198 of the Business and Professions Code is
9amended to read:
(a) This article shall be known and may be cited as the
11Cultural and Linguistic Competency of Physicians Act of 2003.
12The cultural and linguistic physician competency program is hereby
13established and shall be operated by local medical societies of the
14California Medical Association and shall be monitored by the
15Medical Board of California.
16(b) This program shall be a voluntary program for all interested
17physicians. As a primary objective, the program shall consist of
18educational classes which shall be designed to teach physicians
19the following:
20(1) A foreign language at the level of
proficiency that initially
21improves their ability to communicate with non-English speaking
22patients.
23(2) A foreign language at the level of proficiency that eventually
24enables direct communication with the non-English speaking
25patients.
26(3) Cultural beliefs and practices that may impact patient health
27care practices and allow physicians to incorporate this knowledge
28in the diagnosis and treatment of patients who are not from the
29predominate culture in California.
30(c) The program shall operate through local medical societies
31and shall be developed to address the ethnic language minority
32groups, as well as lesbian, gay, bisexual,begin delete and transgenderend delete
33begin insert
transgender, and intersexend insert groups, of interest to local medical
34societies.
35(d) In dealing with Spanish language and cultural practices of
36Mexican immigrant communities, the cultural and linguistic
37training program shall be developed with direct input from
38physician groups in Mexico who serve the same immigrant
39population in Mexico. A similar approach may be used for any of
40the languages and cultures that are taught by the program or
P6 1appropriate ethnic medical societies may be consulted for the
2development of these programs.
3(e) Training programs shall be based and developed on the
4established knowledge of providers already serving target
5populations and shall be formulated in collaboration with the
6California Medical Association, the
Medical Board of California,
7and other California-based ethnic medical societies, as well as
8lesbian, gay, bisexual,begin delete and transgenderend deletebegin insert transgender, and intersexend insert
9 medical societies.
10(f) Programs shall include standards that identify the degree of
11competency for participants who successfully complete
12independent parts of the course of instruction.
13(g) Programs shall seek accreditation by the Accreditation
14Council for Continuing Medical Education.
15(h) The Medical Board of California shall convene a workgroup
16including, but not limited to, representatives of
affected patient
17populations, medical societies engaged in program delivery, and
18community clinics to perform the following functions:
19(1) Evaluation of the progress made in the achievement of the
20intent of this article.
21(2) Determination of the means by which achievement of the
22intent of this article can be enhanced.
23(3) Evaluation of the reasonableness and the consistency of the
24standards developed by those entities delivering the program.
25(4) Determination and recommendation of the credit to be given
26to participants who successfully complete the identified programs.
27Factors to be considered in this determination shall include, at a
28minimum, compliance
with requirements for continuing medical
29education and eligibility for increased rates of reimbursement
30under Medi-Cal, the Healthy Families Program, and health
31maintenance organization contracts.
32(i) Funding shall be provided by fees charged to physicians who
33elect to take these educational classes and any other funds that
34local medical societies may secure for this purpose.
35(j) A survey for language minority patients shall be developed
36and distributed by local medical societies, to measure the degree
37of satisfaction with physicians who have taken the educational
38classes on cultural and linguistic competency provided under this
39section. Local medical societies shall also develop an evaluation
40survey for physicians to assess the quality of educational or training
P7 1programs on cultural and linguistic competency. This information
2shall be shared with the workgroup established by the Medical
3Board of California.
4(j) (1) Local medical societies shall develop and distribute a
5survey for both of the following groups of individuals to measure
6the degree of satisfaction with physicians who have taken the
7educational classes on cultural and linguistic competency provided
8pursuant to this section:
9(A) Language minority patients.
end insertbegin insert10(B) Lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and intersex patients.
end insertbegin insert
11(2) Local medical societies shall also develop an evaluation
12survey for physicians to assess the quality of education or training
13programs on cultural and linguistic competency provided pursuant
14to this section.
15(3) The information provided by these surveys shall be shared
16with the workgroup
established by the Medical Board of California
17pursuant to subdivision (h).
Section 2198.1 of the Business and Professions Code
19 is amended to read:
For purposes of this article, “cultural and linguistic
21competency” means cultural and linguistic abilities that can be
22incorporated into therapeutic and medical evaluation and treatment,
23including, but not limited to, the following:
24(a) Direct communication in the patient-client primary language.
25(b) Understanding and applying the roles that culture, ethnicity,
26race, sexual orientation, gender identity, and gender expression
27play in diagnosis, treatment, and clinical care.
28(c) Awareness of how the attitudes, values, and beliefs of health
29care
providers, patients, and society influence and impact
30professional and patient relations.
31(d) Developing behaviors that increase a patient’s satisfaction
32with, and trust in, his or her physicians and health care institutions.
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