BILL ANALYSIS
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|SENATE RULES COMMITTEE | SB 43|
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THIRD READING
Bill No: SB 43
Author: Alquist (D)
Amended: 5/19/09
Vote: 21
SEN. BUS., PROF. & ECON. DEV. COMMITTEE : 8-1, 4/20/09
AYES: Negrete McLeod, Corbett, Correa, Florez, Oropeza,
Romero, Walters, Yee
NOES: Aanestad
NO VOTE RECORDED: Wyland
SENATE APPROPRIATIONS COMMITTEE : Senate Rule 28.8
SUBJECT : Health professions
SOURCE : Author
DIGEST : This bill authorizes the healing arts boards
within the Department of Consumer Affairs to collect
information regarding the cultural and linguistic
competency of persons subject to regulation by those boards
and requires the information to be used to meet the
cultural and linguistic concerns of the state's diverse
patient population. This bill also requires the Employment
Development Department to share that information with the
Office of Statewide Health Planning and Development to
increase the amount of data available for workforce policy
and development efforts, and specifies that any personally
identifiable information gathered shall be confidential and
not subject to public inspection.
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Senate Floor Amendments of 5/19/09 clarify the role of the
Office of Statewide Health Planning and Development in the
collection and utilization of workforce and educational
data in the state.
ANALYSIS :
Existing law:
1.Provides for the licensure and regulation of various
healing arts by respective healing arts board within the
Department of Consumer Affairs (DCA).
2.Establishes the Task Force on Culturally and
Linguistically Competent Physicians and Dentists and
assigns the task force various duties, including, among
other things, identifying the key cultural elements
necessary to meet cultural competency.
3.Authorizes physicians and surgeons, dentists and dental
auxiliaries to report information regarding their
cultural background and foreign language proficiency to
their respective licensing boards and requires the boards
to collect that information, as specified.
4.Requires the Office of Statewide Health Planning and
Development (OSHPD) to establish a health care workforce
clearinghouse to serve as the central source of health
care workforce and educational data in the state.
5.Requires the Director of the Employment Development
Department (EDD) to permit the use of information in his
or her possession for specified purposes.
This bill:
1.Allows a healing arts board, in a manner deemed
appropriate by the board, to collect information
regarding the cultural and linguistic competency of
persons licensed, certified, registered or otherwise
subject to regulation by that board.
A. Specifies the information collected to be used for
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the purpose of meeting the cultural and linguistic
concerns of the state's diverse patient population,
and any other use of the information collected is
prohibited.
B. Requires personally identifiable information
collected pursuant to this bill to be held in
confidentiality and not be subject to public
inspection.
C. Stipulates that the authority provided in this
bill shall be in addition to, and not a limitation
on, the authority provided under other provisions of
the Health and Safety Code.
2.Defines "Board" as any healing arts board, division, or
examining committee that licenses, certifies or regulates
health professionals pursuant to this division.
3.Enables OSHPD to utilize data within the Director of
EDD's possession for the purpose of the health workforce
clearinghouse established pursuant to the Health and
Safety Code, and specifies that personally identifiable
information utilized pursuant to the bill shall be
confidential and not subject to public inspection.
Purpose . The Healthcare Workforce Clearinghouse, created
under SB 139 (Scott), Chapter 522, Statutes of 2007, is
intended to be a centralized source for California's health
care workforce and education data. The Clearinghouse is
required to create a database to monitor the state's health
care workforce and assess the state's health care workforce
supply and demand in order to shape policy. The author's
office suggests that available information is not used to
its full capacity because EDD is not authorized to share
labor data and licensing boards are not authorized to
collect information about the cultural and linguistic
competency of health care professionals. Thus, the
Clearinghouse is not able to collect complete data. This
bill is meant to ensure that OSHPD can fully implement the
Clearinghouse with the most essential and relevant
demographic data available.
Background . There have been ongoing efforts among
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advocates and policymakers to increase the number of
providers who are able to meet California's healthcare
needs. Striking shortages have been noted in the primary
care, public health and nursing fields. This has had
adverse effects on access to care in both rural and urban
areas of the state. Another shortage area is related to
the racial and ethnic diversity of the state's workforce.
For example, by the year 2020, it is estimated that
California's population will grow to nearly 49 million;
more than half of which will be non-white. While African
Americans, Latinos and Native Americans as a group
constitute nearly 25 percent of the U.S. population, these
three groups account for less than nine percent of nurses,
six percent of physicians and five percent of dentists. A
number of studies have shown a strong correlation between
greater diversity among health professionals and enhanced
access to care for racial and ethnic minority patients,
expanded patient choice and satisfaction, better
patient-provider communication and better educational
experiences for all students in the medical school setting.
FISCAL EFFECT : Appropriation: No Fiscal Com.: Yes
Local: No
SUPPORT : (Verified 5/5/09)
California Dental Association
California Chiropractic Association
California Primary Care Association
Sailors Union of the Pacific
ARGUMENTS IN SUPPORT : The California Dental Association
(CDA) expects that this bill will produce information that
could be used by the dental industry as well as other
healthcare professionals to develop policies on
recruitment, retention, training and educational programs.
The CDA admits working diligently over the years to address
access to care, by providing, among other things, loan
repayment for recent graduated of dental school who commit
to work in underserved areas, pipeline projects and dental
day camps aimed at encouraging students particularly from
low-income families to consider careers in dentistry.
However, while CDA has seen success in these efforts, its
representatives believe that the health care industry as a
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whole must participate to fully address the needs of these
communities and believes that this bill will encourage
expansion of efforts within other health care
professionals.
JJA:cm 5/19/09 Senate Floor Analyses
SUPPORT/OPPOSITION: SEE ABOVE
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