BILL NUMBER: AB 684	AMENDED
	BILL TEXT

	AMENDED IN ASSEMBLY  APRIL 30, 2015
	AMENDED IN ASSEMBLY  APRIL 23, 2015

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

                        FEBRUARY 25, 2015

   An act to add and repeal Sections 655.1 and 2556.1 of the Business
and Professions Code, relating to healing  arts. 
 arts, and declaring the urgency thereof, to take effect
immediately. 



	LEGISLATIVE COUNSEL'S DIGEST


   AB 684, as amended, Bonilla. 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. 
   This bill would declare that it is to take effect immediately as
an urgency statute. 
   Vote:  majority   2/3  . 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.
   SEC. 3.    This act is an urgency statute necessary
for the immediate preservation of the public peace, health, or safety
within the meaning of Article IV of the Constitution and shall go
into immediate effect. The facts constituting the necessity are:
 
   In order to protect various businesses, opticians, and
optometrists who engage in a business relationship that is prohibited
by Section 655 of the Business and Professions Code from discipline
by the Medical Board of California, the State Board of Optometry, or
other state agency with enforcement authority while the Legislature,
with the assistance of appropriate regulatory agencies, develops a
model that will allow California businesses to provide services to
patients and also protect the interests of practitioners, it is
necessary that this act take effect immediately.