BILL ANALYSIS                                                                                                                                                                                                    



                                                                  AB 657
                                                                  Page  1

          Date of Hearing:   May 13, 2009 

                        ASSEMBLY COMMITTEE ON APPROPRIATIONS
                                Kevin De Leon, Chair

                  AB 657 (Hernandez) - As Amended:  April 27, 2009  

          Policy Committee:                              HealthVote:12-4
                       Business & Professions                     5-2

          Urgency:     No                   State Mandated Local Program:  
          No     Reimbursable:              

           SUMMARY  

          This bill requires the Office of Statewide Health Planning and  
          Development (OSHPD), in collaboration with the California  
          Workforce Investment Board, to establish the Health Professions  
          Task Force (task force) to assist in the development of a health  
          professions master plan.  

           FISCAL EFFECT  

          Unknown costs in the range of $100,000 per year from 2010  
          through 2013 for OSHPD to support about one-dozen meetings,  
          combined, of the task force. Although this bill requires OSHPD  
          to secure federal or private funding, no such funding has been  
          identified at this time. In the absence of other funding, these  
          OSHPD costs are fee-supported special fund costs.  
           
          COMMENTS  

           1)Rationale . This bill is co-sponsored by the Latino Coalition  
            for a Healthy California and the California Academy of Family  
            Physicians. This bill increases the specificity of planning  
            efforts established by SB 139 (Scott), Chapter 522, Statutes  
            of 2007. SB 139 established a Health Professions Clearinghouse  
            within OSHPD to serve as a statewide repository of information  
            about health workforce and educational data. This bill  
            requires OSHPD to convene the task force with specified  
            membership and a specified scope of work. This bill continues  
            recent and prior efforts on the issue of health workforce  
            readiness. 

           2)Provider Shortages  . According to a recent report by the  
            University of California, the state faces a shortfall of up to  
            17,000 physicians by 2015. The factors attributing to a  
            provider shortage include population growth, aging of the  





                                                                  AB 657
                                                                  Page  2

            current provider work force, and a lack of capacity in  
            training programs. In addition to the provider shortage,  
            health care professionals are not proportionately  
            representative of the populations they serve. For example,  
            while African-Americans, Latinos, and Native Americans make up  
            more than 25% of the national population, only 9% of the  
            nation's nurses, 6% of its physicians, and 5% of dentists are  
            from these same ethnic groups.  A linkage has been established  
            through several research studies between a shortage of health  
            professionals of color and health disparities.

           3)Related Legislation  . AB 2375 (Hernandez) in 2008 was a bill  
            with a similar task force, but broader provisions. AB 2375 was  
            held on the Suspense File of the Senate Appropriations  
            Committee. 
           
          Analysis Prepared by  :    Mary Ader / APPR. / (916) 319-2081