BILL ANALYSIS Ó
SENATE COMMITTEE ON
BUSINESS, PROFESSIONS AND ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT
Senator Jerry Hill, Chair
2015 - 2016 Regular
Bill No: SB 1217 Hearing Date: April 11,
2016
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|Author: |Stone |
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|Version: |February 18, 2016 |
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|Urgency: |No |Fiscal: |Yes |
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|Consultant|Sarah Mason |
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Subject: Healing arts: reporting requirements: professional
liability resulting in death or personal injury
SUMMARY: Increases the dollar amount for judgement and settlement
information required to be kept in a licensee's central file by
a health care licensing board and increases the dollar amount
for settlements which trigger mandatory reporting to health care
licensing boards about a board's licensees.
Existing law:
1) Requires health care licensing boards to create and maintain
a central file of the names of all persons who hold a
license, certificate, or similar authority. Requires the
central file to be created and maintained to provide an
individual historical record for each licensee and must
include specified information including the following: any
conviction of a crime, any judgment or settlement in excess
of $3,000, any public complaints as specified, and any
disciplinary information, as specified. States that the
content of the central file that is not public record under
any other provision of law is confidential. Allows a
licensee to submit any exculpatory or explanatory statements
or other information to be included in the central file.
(BPC § 800)
2) Establishes a number of mandatory reporting requirements to
health care licensing boards intended to inform boards about
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possible matters for investigation according to the
following:
a) Requires every insurer providing professional liability
insurance to a person who holds a license, certificate, or
similar authority from either the Board of Psychology,
Dental Hygiene Committee of California, State Board of
Chiropractic Examiners, Board of Registered Nursing, Board
of Vocational Nursing and Psychiatric Technicians of the
State of California, State Board of Optometry, Physical
Therapy Board of California, California State Board of
Pharmacy, Speech-Language Pathology and Audiology and
Hearing Aid Dispensers Board, California Board of
Occupational Therapy, Acupuncture Board, and Physician
Assistant Board to send a complete report to that board as
to any settlement or arbitration award over $3,000 of a
claim or action for damages for death or personal injury
caused by a licensee's negligence, error, or omission in
practice, or by his or her rendering of unauthorized
professional services but requires every insurer providing
professional liability insurance to a person licensed by
the Board of Behavioral Sciences (BBS), Dental Board of
California or Veterinary Medical Board of California to
send a report for any award over $10,000 . Specifies that
the report shall be sent within 30 days. (BPC § 801)
b) Requires reporting of settlements over $30,000 and
arbitration awards or civil judgments of any amount to the
Medical Board of California (MBC), Osteopathic Medical
Board of California (OMBC), California Board of Podiatric
Medicine (BPM) and Physician Assistant Board (PAB).
Specifies the report must be filed within 30 days by either
the insurer providing professional liability insurance to
the licensee, the state or local government agency that
self-insures the licensee, the employer of the licensee, or
the licensee if not covered by professional liability
insurance and that failure to provide the report is a
public offense punishable by a fine of $500, not to exceed
$5,000. (BPC § 801.01)
c) Requires every state or local government agency that
self-insures a licensee of a health care licensing board
above (except for licensees of the MBC, OMBC, BPM and PAB)
to report to that board any settlement or arbitration award
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over $3,000 of a claim or action for damages for death or
personal injury caused by a licensee's negligence, error,
or omission in practice, or by his or her rendering of
unauthorized professional services but requires a report to
BBS for awards over $10,000 for BBS licensees. Specifies
the report must be filed within 30 days. (BPC § 801.1)
d) Requires reporting to the health care licensing boards
above (except for licensees of the MBC, OMBC, BPM and PAB)
of any settlement, judgment or arbitration award over
$3,000 of a claim or action for damages for death or
personal injury caused by a licensee's negligence, error,
omission in practice or by his or her unauthorized
rendering of services for licensees who do not possess
professional liability insurance but requires a report to
BBS for awards over $10,000 for BBS licensees. Specifies
the report must be filed within 30 days by the licensee or
his or her counsel, with a copy sent to the claimant or his
or her counsel and that failure to provide the report is a
public offense punishable by a fine of $500, not to exceed
$50,000. (BPC § 802)
e) Requires the clerk of a court that renders a judgment
that a licensee of a health care licensing board has
committed a crime, or is liable for any death or personal
injury resulting in a judgment of any amount caused by the
licensee's negligence, error or omission in practice, or
his or her rendering of unauthorized professional services,
to report that judgment to the board within 10 days after
the judgment is entered. The court clerk is also
responsible for reporting criminal convictions to a health
care licensing board (BPC §§ 803 and 803.5)
This bill:
1) Raises the threshold from $3,000 to $10,000 for a health care
licensing board's central file to include any judgment or
settlement pursuant to BPC § 800.
2) Raises the threshold from $3,000 to $10,000 for awards
required to be reported by a professional liability insurer
to the health care licensing boards pursuant to BPC § 801
about a board's licensee.
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3) Raises the threshold from $3,000 to $10,000 for awards
required to be reported by a state or local government agency
to the health care licensing boards pursuant to BPC § 801.1
about a board's licensee.
4) Raises the threshold from $3,000 to $10,000 for awards
required to be reported by a licensee or his or her counsel,
if the licensee does not possess professional liability
insurance, to the licensee's licensing board.
FISCAL
EFFECT: Unknown. This bill has been keyed "fiscal" by
Legislative Counsel.
COMMENTS:
1. Purpose. The Author is the Sponsor of this bill. According
to the Author, "existing law contains an arbitrary
distinction between certain healing arts practices and others
with regards to their reporting requirements. Licensed
professional clinical counselors, licensed dentists, and
licensed veterinarians among others have a $10,000 threshold
while licensed educational psychologists, licensed nurses,
and licensed pharmacists have a $3,000 threshold."
2. Background. Current law requires all healing arts boards to
report information on settlements or arbitration awards. The
BBS, the DBC, and the VMB must report those in excess of
$10,000; and the MBC, the OMBC, the BPM, and the PAB must
report information in amounts higher than $30,000. All other
boards must report those above $3,000.
SB 158 (Peace, Chapter 5, Statutes of 1995), which increased
the reporting threshold for dentists from $3,000 to $10,000
noted that the $3,000 figure was originally determined in
1975. Legislative history for the original bill was not
provided by the Author's office, so it is unclear whether
that amount was indeed "arbitrary." However, since that
time, there have been deliberate efforts to raise certain
reporting thresholds and not others.
The Author's office did not provide information on the number
of settlement and arbitration reports currently received by
all the boards affected, nor whether the boards themselves
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see value by increasing the threshold amounts. The Senate
Business, Professions and Economic Development Committee
(BPED) was made aware only of those received by the Board of
Pharmacy (BOP); it received 674 reports for amounts above
$3,000 between 2011 and 2015. BPED does not know the average
amount of these reports, nor what happened as a result of the
information. However, the BOP's Legislation and Regulation
Committee considered, but failed to take a support position
on this bill at its March 24, 2016 meeting.
Because many boards use these reports to launch disciplinary
reviews, it is conceivable that, should this bill pass,
certain offenses may not rise to the attention of the state's
regulatory boards and future consumers may be harmed. While
the $3,000 amount may appear dated and arbitrary, it is urged
that a more thorough review of current practices and policies
be conducted before reporting requirements themselves are
changed arbitrarily to ensure consumer protection.
3. Prior Related Legislation. SB 146 (Wyland, Chapter 381,
Statutes of 2011) added Licensed Professional Clinical
Counselors to the BBS reporting requirements.
SB 1548 (Figueroa, Chapter 467, Statutes of 2004) required
every insurer providing liability insurance to a licensed
veterinarian to send a complete report to VMB as to any
settlement or arbitration award over $10,000 for a claim or
action for damages for death or injury caused by that
person's negligence, error, or omission in practice, or of
rendering unauthorized professional service.
AB 103 (Figueroa, Chapter 359, Statutes of 1997) increased
reporting and dissemination of information about health care
providers regarding medical malpractice arbitration awards
and judgments and required specified information to be posted
on the Internet.
SB 158 (Peace, Chapter 5, Statutes of 1995) raised the
reporting requirement from $3,000 to $10,000 for a
malpractice insurer to report to the DBC.
SUPPORT AND OPPOSITION:
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Support: None on file as of April 5, 2016.
Opposition: None on file as of April 5, 2016.
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