BILL NUMBER: AB 1589	AMENDED
	BILL TEXT

	AMENDED IN ASSEMBLY  APRIL 30, 2001

INTRODUCED BY   Assembly Member Simitian

                        FEBRUARY 23, 2001

   An act to add Section 2028 to the Business and Professions Code,
relating to the healing arts.


	LEGISLATIVE COUNSEL'S DIGEST


   AB 1589, as amended, Simitian.  Healing arts:  electronic
transmission prescriptions.
   Existing law, the Medical Practice Act, creates the Medical Board
of California and requires it to perform various duties relating to
the practices of physicians and surgeons and other healing arts
practitioners.
   This bill would require the board to  study  
consult with the California State Board of Pharmacy and commission a
study that evaluates  the electronic transmission of
prescriptions by physicians and surgeons and report its results to
the Legislature  on or  before  May 1, 2002
  January 1, 2003  .  The bill would specify that
the board's report include recommendations to encourage physicians
and surgeons to use this method to transmit prescriptions and
identify systems to protect patients, including the issuance of a
digital certification, as defined.
   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.  (a) The Legislature finds, based upon a report entitled
"To Err is Human, Building a Safer Health System," a report issued
in 1999 by the Institute of Medicine, that in 1993, approximately
7,000 deaths occurred in the United States as a result of medication
errors.
   (b) The Legislature further finds, based on information from the
Institute for Safe Medicine Practices, the following:
   (1) Of the three billion prescriptions issued each year in the
United States, nearly all of them are handwritten by the physician
and surgeon issuing the prescription.
   (2) Illegible prescriptions result in more than 150 million
inquiries each year by pharmacists for clarification from the
physician and surgeon who issued the prescription.
   (3) While the technology exists for the electronic transmission of
prescriptions, less than 5 percent of physicians and surgeons use
this technology to prescribe medication.
  SEC. 2.  Section 2028 is added to the Business and Professions
Code, to read:
   2028.  The Medical Board of California shall  conduct
  consult with the California State Board of Pharmacy
and commission  a study and report its results to the
Legislature  on or  before  May 1, 2002 
 January 1, 2003  , on the electronic transmission of
prescriptions by physicians and surgeons.  This report shall include
recommendations for methods to encourage physicians and surgeons to
issue prescriptions by electronic transmission and identification of
systems to protect patients for whom prescriptions are issued using
that process, including, but not limited to, the issuance of digital
certification to physicians and surgeons to use when transmitting
prescriptions electronically.  "Digital certification" is an
electronic signature verifying the identity of the physician and
surgeon who is transmitting the prescription electronically.