BILL NUMBER: AB 684	AMENDED
	BILL TEXT

	AMENDED IN ASSEMBLY  APRIL 23, 2015

INTRODUCED BY   Assembly Member Bonilla
    (   Coauthor:   Assembly Member  
Alejo   ) 

                        FEBRUARY 25, 2015

    An act to amend Section 4200.3 of the Business and
Professions Code, relating to healing arts.   An act to
add and repeal Sections 655.1 and 2556.1 of the Business and
Professions Code, relating to healing arts. 


	LEGISLATIVE COUNSEL'S DIGEST


   AB 684, as amended, Bonilla.  Pharmacy.  
Healing arts: licensees: disciplinary actions.  
   Existing law prohibits a licensed optometrist and a registered
dispensing optician from having any membership, proprietary interest,
coownership, landlord-tenant relationship, or any profit-sharing
arrangement in any form, directly or indirectly, with each other.
Existing law prohibits a licensed optometrist from having any
membership, proprietary interest, coownership, landlord-tenant
relationship, or any profit-sharing arrangement in any form, directly
or indirectly, either by stock ownership, interlocking directors,
trusteeship, mortgage, trust deed, or otherwise with any person who
is engaged in the manufacture, sale, or distribution to physicians
and surgeons, optometrists, or dispensing opticians of lenses,
frames, optical supplies, optometric appliances or devices or kindred
products. Existing law makes a violation of these provisions by a
licensed optometrist and any other persons, whether or not a healing
arts licensee, who participates with a licensed optometrist subject
to a crime.  
    Under existing law, the Medical Board of California is
responsible for the registration and regulation of dispensing
opticians. Existing law makes the State Board of Optometry
responsible for the licensure of optometrists.  
   This bill, until January 1, 2017, would prohibit a registered
dispensing optician or optometrist from being subject to discipline
by the Medical Board of California, the State Board of Optometry, or
other state agency with enforcement authority for engaging in any of
the aforementioned business relationships.  
   Existing law makes it unlawful to, among other things, advertise
the furnishing of, or to furnish, the services of a refractionist, an
optometrist, or a physician and surgeon, or to directly or
indirectly employ or maintain on or near the premises used for
optical dispensing, a refractionist, an optometrist, a physician and
surgeon, or a practitioner of any other profession for the purpose of
any examination or treatment of the eyes.  
   This bill, until January 1, 2017, would prohibit a registered
dispensing optician from being subject to discipline for engaging in
that aforementioned conduct.  
   Existing law, the Pharmacy Law, provides for the licensure and
regulation of pharmacists by the California State Board of Pharmacy
within the Department of Consumer Affairs. Existing law authorizes
the board to license as a pharmacist an applicant who meets specified
requirements, including passage of the North American Pharmacist
Licensure Examination. Existing law requires the examination process
to meet specified standards and federal guidelines and requires the
board to terminate use of that examination if the department
determines that the examination fails to meet those standards.
Existing law requires the board to report to the now obsolete Joint
Committee on Boards, Commissions, and Consumer Protection and the
department specified examination pass rate information. 

   This bill would instead require the board to report that pass rate
information to the appropriate policy committees of the Legislature
and the department. The bill would also make nonsubstantive changes
to those provisions. 
   Vote: majority. Appropriation: no. Fiscal committee: yes.
State-mandated local program: no.


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

   SECTION 1.    Section 655.1 is added to the 
 Business and Professions Code   , to read:  
   655.1.  (a) Notwithstanding any other law and on and after January
1, 2016, no dispensing optician registered pursuant to Chapter 5.5
(commencing with Section 2550) or optometrist licensed pursuant to
Chapter 7 (commencing with Section 3000) shall be subject to
discipline by the Medical Board of California, the State Board of
Optometry, or other state agency with enforcement authority for
engaging in any business relationship prohibited by Section 655.
   (b) Nothing in this section shall be construed to imply or suggest
that a registered dispensing optician or optometrist engaging in any
business relationship is in violation of or in compliance with the
law.
   (c) This section shall remain in effect only until January 1,
2017, and as of that date is repealed, unless a later enacted
statute, that is enacted before January 1, 2017, deletes or extends
that date. 
   SEC. 2.    Section 2556.1 is added to the  
Business and Professions Code   , to read:  
   2556.1.  (a) Notwithstanding any other law and on and after
January 1, 2016, a person registered under this chapter shall not be
subject to discipline for engaging in conduct prohibited by Section
2556, except that, a registrant shall be subject to discipline for
duplicating or changing lenses without a prescription or order from a
person duly licensed to issue the same.
   (b) Nothing in this section shall be construed to imply or suggest
that a person registered under this chapter is in violation of or in
compliance with the law.
   (c) This section shall remain in effect only until January 1,
2017, and as of that date is repealed, unless a later enacted
statute, that is enacted before January 1, 2017, deletes or extends
that date.  
  SECTION 1.    Section 4200.3 of the Business and
Professions Code is amended to read:
   4200.3.  (a) The examination process shall be regularly reviewed
pursuant to Section 139.
   (b) The examination process shall meet the standards and
guidelines set forth in the Standards for Educational and
Psychological Testing and the federal Uniform Guidelines on Employee
Selection Procedures. The board shall work with the Office of
Professional Examination Services of the department or with an
equivalent organization who shall certify at minimum once every five
years that the examination process meets these national testing
standards. If the department determines that the examination process
fails to meet these standards, the board shall terminate its use of
the North American Pharmacist Licensure Examination and shall use
only the written and practical examination developed by the board.
   (c) The examination shall meet the mandates of subdivision (a) of
Section 12944 of the Government Code.
   (d) The board shall work with the Office of Professional
Examination Services or with an equivalent organization to develop
the state jurisprudence examination to ensure that applicants for
licensure are evaluated on their knowledge of applicable state laws
and regulations.
   (e) The board shall annually publish the pass and fail rates for
the pharmacist's licensure examination administered pursuant to
Section 4200, including a comparison of historical pass and fail
rates before utilization of the North American Pharmacist Licensure
Examination.
   (f) (1) The board shall report to the appropriate policy
committees of the Legislature and the department as part of its next
scheduled review, the pass rates of applicants who sat for the
national examination compared with the pass rates of applicants who
sat for the prior state examination. This report shall be a component
of the evaluation of the examination process that is based on
psychometrically sound principles for establishing minimum
qualifications and levels of competency.
   (2) This subdivision shall become inoperative on January 1, 2020,
pursuant to Section 10231.5 of the Government Code.