BILL NUMBER: AB 2139	INTRODUCED
	BILL TEXT


INTRODUCED BY   Assembly Member Eggman

                        FEBRUARY 20, 2014

   An act to add Section 442.4 to the Health and Safety Code,
relating to terminal illness.


	LEGISLATIVE COUNSEL'S DIGEST


   AB 2139, as introduced, Eggman. End-of-life care: patient
notification.
   Under existing law, the State Department of Public Health licenses
and regulates health facilities, including hospice facilities, and
the provision of hospice services. Existing law establishes the
Medical Practice Act, which provides for the regulation and licensure
of physicians and surgeons by the Medical Board of California.
   When a health care provider, as defined, makes a diagnosis that a
patient has a terminal illness, existing law requires the health care
provider to provide the patient, upon the patient's request, with
comprehensive information and counseling regarding legal end-of-life
options, as specified, and provide for the referral or transfer of a
patient, as provided, if the patient's health care provider does not
wish to comply with the patient's request for information on
end-of-life options.
   This bill would require a health care provider, as defined, to
notify the patient, when the health care provider makes a diagnosis
that a patient has a terminal illness, of the patient's right to
comprehensive information and counseling regarding legal end-of-life
care options.
   Vote: majority. Appropriation: no. Fiscal committee: no.
State-mandated local program: no.


THE PEOPLE OF THE STATE OF CALIFORNIA DO ENACT AS FOLLOWS:

  SECTION 1.  Section 442.4 is added to the Health and Safety Code,
to read:
   442.4.  When a health care provider makes a diagnosis that a
patient has a terminal illness, the health care provider shall notify
the patient of his or her right to comprehensive information and
counseling regarding legal end-of-life options pursuant to Section
442.5.