Amended in Assembly August 15, 2016

Amended in Assembly August 1, 2016

Amended in Senate June 1, 2016

Amended in Senate April 12, 2016

Senate Bill No. 1090

Introduced by Senator Mitchell

(Coauthors: Assembly Members Cristina Garcia, Gipson, and Williams)

February 17, 2016

An act to amend Sections 120500, 120505, 120510, 120515, 120535, 120540, 120565, 120575, and 120605 of, to add Section 120511 to, and to repeal and add Section 120525 of, the Health and Safety Code, relating to sexually transmitted diseases.

LEGISLATIVE COUNSEL’S DIGEST

SB 1090, as amended, Mitchell. Sexually transmitted diseases: outreach and screening services.

The existing Communicable Disease Prevention and Control Act defines the term “venereal disease” to mean syphilis, gonorrhea, chancroid, lymphopathia venereum, granuloma inguinale, and chlamydia. Existing law requires the State Department of Public Health to develop and review plans and participate in a program for the prevention and control of venereal disease, and authorizes the department to establish, maintain, and subsidize clinics, dispensaries, and prophylactic stations for the diagnosis, treatment, and prevention of venereal disease.

This bill would delete the term “venereal disease” and would instead use the term “sexually transmitted diseases” (STDs), which would be defined as diseases that are primarily transmitted through sexual contact. The bill would require the department, to the extent funds are appropriated by the Legislature, to allocate grants to local health jurisdictions for STD begin delete outreach and screening end delete begin insert outreach, screening, and other core end insert services. The bill would target and prioritize the allocation of funds to counties based on population and incidence of STDs and would require the allocation of funds to targeted counties to balance the need to spread funding to as many counties as possible and the need to provide meaningful services to each funded county. The bill would make specified mandates and accountability measures applicable to the county begin delete and to the community-based organization end delete when providing the begin delete outreach and screening end delete begin insert outreach, screening, and other core end insert services.

This bill would begin delete require the department to end delete begin insert provide that the department, in awarding funds pursuant to these provisions, may end insert authorize innovative and impactful begin delete outreach and screening end delete begin insert outreach, screening, and other core end insert services, such as voluntary screening of inmates and wards of county adult and juvenile corrections facilities, and use of state-of-the-art testing modalities. The bill would require the department to use the accountability measures developed under the bill in order to monitor the activities funded by the bill and would limit the department’s expenditures on administrative costs to no more than 10% of the funds appropriated by the Legislature for this purpose.

The bill would also delete obsolete provisions and make conforming changes.

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 120500 of the Health and Safety Code
is amended to read:

120500.  

As used in the Communicable Disease Prevention and
Control Act, defined in Section 27, “sexually transmitted diseases”
means diseases that are primarily transmitted through sexual
contact.

SEC. 2.  

Section 120505 of the Health and Safety Code is
amended to read:

120505.  

The department shall develop and review plans and
provide leadership and consultation for, and participate in, a
program for the prevention and control of sexually transmitted
diseases.

SEC. 3.  

Section 120510 of the Health and Safety Code is
amended to read:

120510.  

The department shall cooperate in the prevention,
control, and cure of sexually transmitted diseases with all of the
following:

(a) Physicians and surgeons.

(b) Medical schools.

(c) Public and private hospitals, dispensaries, and clinics.

(d) Administrators of public and private elementary and
secondary schools and public and private postsecondary
educational institutions.

(e) Penal and charitable institutions.

(f) Detention homes.

(g) Federal, state, local, and district health officers, boards of
health, and all other health authorities.

(h) Institutions caring for the mentally ill.

(i) Any other persons, institutions, or agencies.

SEC. 4.  

Section 120511 is added to the Health and Safety Code,
to read:

120511.  

(a) To the extent funds are appropriated by the
Legislature for these purposes, the department shall allocate funds
to local health jurisdictions for sexually transmitted disease

begin delete outreach and screening services in accordance with the following: end delete

begin insert outreach, screening, and other core services in accordance, to the
extent possible, with the following: end insert

(1) Counties shall be targeted and prioritized based on
population and incidence of sexually transmitted diseases.

(2) Funds shall be allocated to targeted counties in a manner
that balances the need to spread funding to as many counties as
possible and the need to provide meaningful services to each
funded county.

(3) Each recipient county shall demonstrate to the department
that the county has done all of the following:

(A) Identified priority target populations.

(B) Satisfactorily described its outreach protocols.

(C) Included community-based partners for begin delete outreach and
screening. end delete begin insert outreach, screening, and other core services. end insert

(D) Allocated resources for laboratory costs.

(4) The department shall develop measures for each county
funded pursuant to this section to demonstrate accountability.

(b)  begin delete The department shall end delete begin insert In awarding funds pursuant to
subdivision (a), the department may end insert authorize innovative and
impactful begin delete outreach and screening end delete begin insert outreach, screening, and other
core end insert services, including, but not limited to, the following:

(1) Voluntary screening for sexually transmitted diseases among
inmates and wards of county adult and juvenile correctional
facilities. begin insert The department may provide assistance or guidance to
the local health jurisdiction if necessary to secure participation
by other county agencies. end insert

(2) Social media platforms that allow a person to receive test
results, share test results with partners, access treatment services,
and reduce administrative costs.

(3) State-of-the-art testing modalities that ensure swift and
accurate screening for sexually transmitted diseases.

(4) Community-based testing and disease investigation.

(c) The department shall monitor activities in funded counties,
based on the accountability measures required under paragraph
(4) of subdivision (a) in order to assess the effectiveness of begin delete outreach
and screening end delete begin insert outreach, screening, and other core services end insert efforts.

(d) The department shall spend no more than 10 percent of any
funds appropriated by the Legislature for purposes of this section
for administrative costs.

(e) It is the intent of the Legislature that the services identified
in this section are to enhance the services that are already provided.
Therefore, nothing in this section shall be construed to require the
department to replace existing services with the services provided
for in subdivision (a) or to prevent the department from adding
new services as may be appropriate.

SEC. 5.  

Section 120515 of the Health and Safety Code is
amended to read:

120515.  

The department shall investigate conditions affecting
the prevention and control of sexually transmitted diseases and
approved procedures for prevention and control, and shall
disseminate educational information relative thereto.

SEC. 6.  

Section 120525 of the Health and Safety Code is
repealed.

SEC. 7.  

Section 120525 is added to the Health and Safety Code,
to read:

120525.  

The department may provide medical, advisory,
financial, or other assistance to organizations as may be approved
by it.

SEC. 8.  

Section 120535 of the Health and Safety Code is
amended to read:

120535.  

Any state agency conducting a public hospital shall
admit acute sexually transmitted disease cases, when, in the opinion
of the department or the local health officer having jurisdiction,
persons infected with a sexually transmitted disease may be a
menace to public health.

SEC. 9.  

Section 120540 of the Health and Safety Code is
amended to read:

120540.  

The department may require any physician in
attendance on a person infected, or suspected of being infected,
with a sexually transmitted disease infection to submit specimens
as may be designated for examination, when in its opinion the
procedure is reasonably necessary to carry out the provisions and
purposes of this chapter.

SEC. 10.  

Section 120565 of the Health and Safety Code is
amended to read:

120565.  

If a person subject to proper sexually transmitted
disease control measures discontinues any control procedure
required by this chapter, the agency administering the procedure,
prior to the discontinuance, shall make reasonable efforts to
determine whether the person is continuing to comply with the
procedure elsewhere.

SEC. 11.  

Section 120575 of the Health and Safety Code is
amended to read:

120575.  

It is the duty of the local health officers to use every
available means to ascertain the existence of cases of infectious
sexually transmitted diseases within their respective jurisdictions,
to investigate all cases that are not, or probably are not, subject to
proper control measures approved by the board, to ascertain so far
as possible all sources of infection, and to take all measures
reasonably necessary to prevent the transmission of infection.

SEC. 12.  

Section 120605 of the Health and Safety Code is
amended to read:

120605.  

This chapter shall not be construed to interfere with
the freedom of any adherent of teachings of any well-recognized
religious sect, denomination, or organization to depend exclusively
upon prayer for healing in accordance with the teachings of the
religious sect, denomination, or organization. That person, along
with any person treating him or her, shall be exempt from all
provisions of this chapter regarding sexually transmitted diseases,
except that the provisions of this code and the regulations of the
board regarding compulsory reporting of communicable diseases
and the quarantine of those diseases, and regarding callings that a
person with a sexually transmitted disease may not engage, shall
apply.