BILL ANALYSIS Ó
SENATE COMMITTEE ON APPROPRIATIONS
Senator Ricardo Lara, Chair
2015 - 2016 Regular Session
AB 179 (Bonilla) - Healing arts
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|Version: June 30, 2015 |Policy Vote: B., P. & E.D. 7 - |
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|Urgency: No |Mandate: No |
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|Hearing Date: August 27, 2015 |Consultant: Brendan McCarthy |
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*********** ANALYSIS ADDENDUM - SUSPENSE FILE ***********
The following information is revised to reflect amendments
adopted by the committee on August 27, 2015
Bill
Summary: AB 179 would extend the statutory sunset on the Dental
Board of California until January 1, 2020 and increase the
statutory caps on fees assessed by the Dental Board. The bill
would extend the statutory sunset of the Board of Vocational
Nursing and Psychiatric Technicians until January 1, 2018 and
merge the Vocational Nurses Account and the Psychiatric
Technician Examiners Account. The bill would suspend the
practical examination requirement for licensure as a registered
dental assistant until July 1, 2017.
Fiscal
Impact:
No significant costs are anticipated due to the extension of
the sunset on the Dental Board of California (State Dentistry
Fund). Current law imposes a sunset on the existence of the
AB 179 (Bonilla) Page 1 of
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Dental Board as an appointed board. However, there is no
sunset on the larger body of law requiring licensure and
oversight of the practice of dentistry. If the Dental Board
was allowed to sunset, the overall licensing and regulatory
program would still exist in law.
Significant increases in licensing fee revenues to the Dental
Board are possible under the bill (State Dentistry Fund). The
bill authorizes the Dental Board, through regulation, to raise
a number of licensing fees currently capped in statute. If the
Board were to raise the fees to the maximum level authorized
in the bill, additional annual revenues would be about $2.8
million per year for dentist licensing fees and $2.7 million
per year for other regulatory fees (State Dentistry Fund). The
actual amount of fee revenue collected by the Board will
depend on the actual fee levels set through regulation.
No significant costs are anticipated due to the extension of
the sunset on the Board of Vocational Nursing and Psychiatric
Technicians (Vocational Nursing and Psychiatric Technicians
Fund). Current law imposes a sunset on the existence of the
Board of Vocational Nursing and Psychiatric Technicians as an
appointed board. However, there is no sunset on the larger
body of law requiring licensure and oversight of the practice
of vocational nurses or psychiatric technicians. If the Board
of Vocational Nursing and Psychiatric Technicians was allowed
to sunset, the overall licensing and regulatory program would
still exist in law.
No significant fiscal impact on licensing fees is anticipated
due to the merger of the Vocational Nurses Account and the
Psychiatric Technician Examiners Account. The Board operates
the licensing and enforcement programs for vocational nurses
and psychiatric technicians as one administrative program.
Thus the current practice of separating licensing fees into
separate accounts does not reflect the Board's current
business practices. Merging the two accounts is not
anticipated to require licensing fees from one group of
licensees to subsidize another group of licensees.
One-time costs of $140,000 to change the information
technology systems used by the Dental Board of California to
accommodate the suspension of the practical examination (State
Dentistry Fund). The cost to modify information technology
AB 179 (Bonilla) Page 2 of
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systems includes changes to the system currently in use by the
Dental Board and updates to the BreEZe system, which the
Dental Board will begin using to process licensing
applications and renewals in 2016.
No significant additional costs are anticipated to review the
current practical examination in use by the Dental Board, as
the Board has already begun this process.
Author
Amendments: Suspend the practical examination requirement for
registered dental assistant applicants until July 1, 2017 and
require the Dental Board of California to conduct a review of
the necessity of requiring a practical examination as part of
the licensing process for registered dental assistants. [Those
provisions were formerly included in AB 178 (Bonilla)].
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