Amended in Assembly August 5, 2013

Amended in Assembly June 26, 2013

Amended in Senate May 24, 2013

Amended in Senate April 23, 2013

Amended in Senate March 18, 2013

Senate Bill No. 21

Introduced by Senator Roth

(Principal coauthor: Assembly Member Medina)

(Coauthors: Senators Correa and Hueso)

December 3, 2012

An act relating to the University of California.

LEGISLATIVE COUNSEL’S DIGEST

SB 21, as amended, Roth. University of California: UC Riverside Medical School.

Existing provisions of the California Constitution establish the University of California as a public trust under the administration of the Regents of the University of California. The University of California system includes 10 campuses, which are located in Berkeley, Davis, Irvine, Los Angeles, Merced, Riverside, San Diego, San Francisco, Santa Barbara, and Santa Cruz.

The bill would begin delete require end delete begin insert request end insert the School of Medicine at the University of California, Riverside, to develop a program consistent with its mission, in conjunction with the health facilities of its medical residency programs, to identify eligible medical residents and to assist those medical residents to apply for physician retention programs, including, but not begin delete necessarily end delete limited to, the Steven M. Thompson begin delete Medical School Scholarship end delete begin insert Physician Corps Loan Repayment end insert Program.

Vote: majority. Appropriation: no. Fiscal committee:  begin delete yes end delete begin insert no end insert . State-mandated local program: no.

The people of the State of California do enact as follows:

SECTION 1.  

The Legislature finds and declares all of the
following:

(a) California’s supply of primary care physicians is below what
is considered sufficient to meet patient needs. In the rapidly
growing and ethnically diverse area of inland southern California,
the shortage is particularly severe, with just 40 primary care
physicians per 100,000 patients, which is far fewer than the
recommended range of 60 to 80 primary care physicians per
100,000 patients. Furthermore, Latinos, African Americans, and
Native Americans are vastly underrepresented in the physician
workforce.

(b) California lags substantially in the number of medical school
seats per capita, having just 17.3 seats per 100,000 persons,
compared to the United States average of 31.4 seats per 100,000
persons, according to statistics published by the Association of
American Medical Colleges.

(c) According to the California HealthCare Foundation, 72
percent of California’s 58 counties have an undersupply of primary
care physicians, with primary care physicians making up just 34
percent of California’s physician workforce.

(d) The University of California, Riverside, (UCR) has had a
longstanding two-year medical education program and its
independent four-year school of medicine has received preliminary
accreditation from the Liaison Committee on Medical Education,
the nationally recognized accrediting body for medical education
programs leading to M.D. degrees in the United States and Canada.
When this new four-year medical school opens in August 2013,
it will become the first new public medical school in California in
more than 40 years.

(e) This community-based medical school with a public mission
to expand and diversify the region’s physician workforce and to
improve the health of people living in inland southern California
has made a commitment to underserved patient populations.

(f) There are two principal determinants of where a physician
practices: (1) where he or she grew up, and (2) where he or she
completes residency training following medical school graduation.

(g) The UCR medical school has strategies to capitalize on both
of these factors. Among these strategies are all of the following:
(1) developing student pipeline programs that inspire more young
people in the region to pursue careers in medicine and other allied
health professions and to recruit them to the UCR medical school;
(2) utilizing a holistic review of medical school applicants that
takes into account diverse life experiences in addition to academic
performance; (3) teaching a curriculum that emphasizes key
competencies for primary care medicine, including wellness and
prevention, evidence-based medicine, and chronic disease
management; (4) creating new residency training programs in
primary care and those short-supply specialties that are most
needed in inland southern California; and (5) continuing UCR’s
commitment to the recruitment, retention, and advancement of
talented students, faculty, and staff from historically excluded
populations who are currently underrepresented in medical
education and the practice of medicine.

(h) As a further incentive for medical students to choose primary
care specialties, the UCR medical school has developed an
innovative “loan-to-scholarship” program, is actively raising
nonstate funds to expand that program, and is educating students
and graduates about existing public and private physician
recruitment and retention programs, including, but not limited to,
the Steven M. Thompson begin delete Medical School Scholarship end delete begin insert Physician
Corps Loan Repayment end insert Program established pursuant to Article
begin delete 6 end delete begin insert 5 end insert (commencing with Section begin delete 128560) end delete begin insert 128550) end insert of Chapter 5 of
Part 3 of Division 107 of the Health and Safety Code.

(i) The appropriation of state funding in the annual Budget Act,
in accordance with Section 16 of Assembly Bill 94 of the 2013-14
Regular Session, to the UCR medical school will add more
physicians to underserved areas in inland southern California and
help California meet the objectives of the federal Patient Protection
and Affordable Care Act (Public Law 111-148) in the short term
and the long term by expanding the physician workforce.

SEC. 2.  

begin delete Riverside, shall end delete begin insert The School of Medicine at the
University of California, Riverside, is requested to end insert develop a
program, consistent with its mission, in conjunction with the health
facilities of its medical residency programs, to identify eligible
medical residents and to assist those medical residents to apply
for physician retention programs, including, but not begin delete necessarily end delete
limited to, the Steven M. Thompson begin delete Medical School Scholarship, end delete
begin insert Physician Corps Loan Repayment Program end insert established pursuant
to Article begin delete 6 end delete begin insert 5 end insert (commencing with Section begin delete 128560) end delete begin insert 128550) end insert of
Chapter 5 of Part 3 of Division 107 of the Health and Safety Code.

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CORRECTIONS:

Text--Page 3.

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