BILL ANALYSIS
AB 1570
Page 1
Date of Hearing: August 24, 2010
ASSEMBLY COMMITTEE ON BUSINESS, PROFESSIONS AND CONSUMER
PROTECTION
Mary Hayashi, Chair
AB 1570 (Salas) - As Amended: July 15, 2010
SUBJECT : Malpractice insurance: volunteer dentists.
SUMMARY : Requires the Dental Board of California (DBC), in
conjunction with the Health Professions Education Foundation
(HPEF), to study the issue of the DBC providing malpractice
insurance to dentists who provide voluntary, unpaid services,
and report its findings to the Legislature by January 1, 2012.
Specifically, this bill :
1)Require DBC, in conjunction with the HPEF, to study the issue
of the DBC providing malpractice insurance to dentists who
provide voluntary, unpaid services, and report its findings to
the Legislature by January 1, 2012.
2)Require the report to discuss the process, cost, options, and
funding of administering a program to provide malpractice
insurance to dentists, and the options and funding for
providing the insurance.
3)Authorize DBC to expend funds from the Dentally Underserved
Account (DUA) to fund the study.
4)Authorize DBC to contract with an independent entity to
conduct the study, which shall be reported to the Legislature
by January 1, 2012.
5)Sunset the provisions of this bill on January 1, 2016.
EXISTING LAW :
1) Establishes DBC to license and regulate the practice of
dentistry.
2) Establishes the California Dental Corps Loan Repayment
Program (dental loan repayment program) to provide loan
repayment for dentists who agree to practice in a dentally
underserved area, as specified.
AB 1570
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3) Establishes the DUA in the State Dentistry Fund to
appropriate money for the dental loan repayment program until
July 1, 2012.
4) Establishes the HPEF, administered by the Office of Statewide
Health Planning and Development, to solicit and receive funds
for the purpose of providing scholarships and loans to
students who agree to practice in medically underserved
areas.
FISCAL EFFECT : Unknown
COMMENTS :
Purpose of this bill . According to the author's office,
"According to a 2009 California Health Care Foundation report,
California has the highest number (6.6 million) of uninsured
individuals in the nation. With continuing rates of
unemployment, there will be more uninsured individuals and
families who stand to benefit from obtaining services from
volunteer dental professionals.
"The recently passed federal health care reform law does not
include a requirement for dental insurance. As a result, there
will still be many people who will struggle to access dental
care.
There are currently not enough volunteer dentists in our state.
One of the barriers for dentists may be the cost of malpractice
liability when volunteer dentists provide uncompensated care.
AB 1570 will assist in examining avenues of promoting greater
access to dental care."
Background . This bill was substantially amended in the Senate.
The prior version of this bill would have required DBC to
administer the Volunteer Insured Dentists Program to provide
medical malpractice insurance coverage to volunteer dentists
providing uncompensated care to low-income patients. The
amendments require a study determine the costs, feasibility, and
administration of the program.
Related Legislation . AB 2334 (Salas) of 2010 is similar to the
introduced version of AB 1570. This bill was held in the
Assembly Health Committee.
AB 2699 (Bass) of 2010 exempts from licensure a health care
AB 1570
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practitioner licensed in another state who offers or provides
health care services on a short-term voluntary basis, as
specified, and without charge to the recipient or a third party
on behalf of the recipient, in association with a sponsoring
entity that registers and provides specified information to a
designated local agency. This bill was held in the Senate
Appropriations Committee.
SB 1031 (Corbett) of 2010 creates the Volunteer Insured
Physicians (VIP) Program within the MBC to provide specified
medical malpractice insurance coverage to physicians providing
voluntary, uncompensated care to patients pursuant to a contract
with a qualified health care entity, as defined. This bill has
held in the Assembly Business, Professions and Consumer
Protection Committee.
Previous Legislation . AB 2342 (Nakanishi), Chapter 276,
Statutes of 2006) required the MBC, in conjunction with HPEF, to
study the issue of providing medical malpractice insurance to
physicians who provide voluntary, unpaid services and report its
findings to the Legislature on or before January 1, 2008.
REGISTERED SUPPORT / OPPOSITION :
Support
None on file.
Opposition
None on file.
Analysis Prepared by : Joanna Gin / B.,P. & C.P. / (916)
319-3301