BILL NUMBER: AB 2280 AMENDED
BILL TEXT
AMENDED IN ASSEMBLY APRIL 25, 2006
AMENDED IN ASSEMBLY APRIL 6, 2006
INTRODUCED BY Assembly Member Leno
FEBRUARY 22, 2006
An act to add Section 120846 to the Health and Safety Code,
relating to public health.
LEGISLATIVE COUNSEL'S DIGEST
AB 2280, as amended, Leno HIV counseling.
Existing law provides for various programs relating to treatment
of persons with human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) and the acquired
immune deficiency syndrome (AIDS).
This bill would require the State Department of Health Services,
no later than July 1, 2007, to develop a counseling model for all
persons who receive HIV testing at an alternate test site or
a clinic that receives state funding for HIV testing. The bill
would require that the department consider including specified
components in the counseling model , relating to, among
other things, risk assessment, data collection, prevention education,
and additional counseling.
This bill would require that the department develop a
reimbursement schedule that accurately reflects the range of services
provided under the counseling model, and that ensures that a
contractor is reimbursed for individual services, as defined in the
counseling model.
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 and declares all of the
following:
(1) Best practice models of human immunodeficiency virus (HIV)
counseling that grew out of early HIV testing have not kept pace with
the changes in the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV)/acquired
immune deficiency syndrome (AIDS) epidemic.
(2) The availability of rapid HIV testing, in which a person can
get a preliminary reading of their HIV status in about 20 minutes,
has created opportunities to streamline the current counseling model.
(3) The availability of treatment has turned HIV from a virtual
death sentence to a managed chronic medical condition.
(4) Counseling of persons getting an HIV test has been focused on
educating people about HIV prevention techniques, collecting
epidemiological data, and referring people with a positive test
result to treatment and partner notification counseling.
(5) A number of test subjects are persons at low risk for exposure
to HIV, and repeat testers who are tested on a regular basis.
(6) The current counseling model employs the same process
regardless of whether the test subject is at low or high risk of
exposure and whether the test subject is a first-time tester or is a
repeat tester.
(7) While any person who seeks an HIV test should be able to get
one, the limited resources available for testing demand that
confidential and anonymous testing clinics have a range of options
for delivering counseling.
(b) It is the intent of the Legislature that a new HIV counseling
model be developed that allows clinics to increase the number of
persons seeking a HIV test to be able to be tested, and appropriately
reimburses clinics for the services provided to those persons.
SEC. 2. Section 120846 is added to the Health and Safety Code, to
read:
120846. (a) The department shall, no later than July 1, 2007,
develop a counseling model for all persons who receive HIV
testing at a clinic that receives state funding for HIV testing. The
department shall consider including testing at an
alternative test site or clinic that receives state funding for HIV
testing. In developing the counseling model, the department shall
seek input from stakeholders, including, but not limited to, local
health jurisdictions and organizations that receive state funding for
HIV testing. The department shall consider including each of
the following components in the counseling model:
(1) A brief risk-assessment mechanism developed by the department
that allows a clinic to ascertain whether a person seeking testing is
at low or high risk of exposure to HIV. The department may recommend
when and how a clinic should use this mechanism, but it shall not be
used to deny testing to a subject who requests it.
(2) A data collection form that may be self-administered by the
test subject, and that includes only questions that must be reported
in accordance with existing state and federal epidemiology report
requirements. Consideration shall be given to reducing the length of
the form and its utility, including whether state or local resources
exist to analyze the data collected. Additional questions may be
added only if new state or federal epidemiology reports are required.
Local health agencies may add questions only with the approval of
the department. While the form may be self-administered, it also may
be completed with the assistance of a counselor at the request of the
test subject.
(3) A prevention education module that comprehensively covers all
pertinent information relative to methods by which a person can
protect himself or herself or his or her sexual or needle-sharing
partners from exposure to HIV. Consideration may be given to
allowing clinics alternative methods of providing the prevention
education module, although no test subject shall be denied the
opportunity to receive prevention education privately and
individually.
(4) Flexibility for clinics to determine the extent of counseling
provided to a test subject based on a test subject's risk factors or
frequency of HIV testing.
(5) Flexibility for clinics to provide counseling to couples or
small groups, as appropriate.
(6) Additional counseling for a test subject whose preliminary
test result is positive. This additional counseling may include, as
needed by the test subject, emotional support, information on
confirmatory testing, referral to care and treatment opportunities,
and a review of methods to prevent exposing others to HIV.
(b) The department shall develop a reimbursement schedule that
accurately reflects the range of services provided under this model.
It is The reimbursement schedule shall ensure
that a contractor is reimbursed for individual services, as defined
in the counseling model. It is the intent of the Legislature that the
reimbursement schedule be designed to encourage contractors to
provide only those services that are appropriate for each
test subject. It is further the intent of the Legislature that
this new model and reimbursement schedule be cost-neutral, except to
the extent that there is an increase in the volume of test subjects.