BILL ANALYSIS
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|SENATE RULES COMMITTEE | SB 821|
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THIRD READING
Bill No: SB 821
Author: Senate Bus., Prof. & Econ. Develop. Committee
Amended: 5/20/09
Vote: 21
SENATE BUS., PROF. & ECON. DEVEL. COMMITTEE : 10-0, 4/27/09
AYES: Negrete McLeod, Wyland, Aanestad, Corbett, Correa,
Florez, Oropeza, Romero, Walters, Yee
SENATE APPROPRIATIONS COMMITTEE : Senate Rule 28.8
SUBJECT : Healing arts: licensees
SOURCE : Author
DIGEST : This bill makes several non-controversial,
minor, non-substantive or technical changes to various
miscellaneous provisions pertaining to the health-related
regulatory boards of the Department of Consumer Affairs.
ANALYSIS :
Existing law:
1.Provides for licensing and regulating various
professions and businesses under separate licensing acts
contained within the California Business and Professions
Code (BPC). The BPC establishes the Department of
Consumer Affairs (DCA) within the State and Consumer
Services Agency. The DCA is comprised of some 26
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boards, eight bureaus, and one commission.
2.Provides for the professional review of specified
healing arts licentiates through a peer review process
and requires the peer review body to report to the
relevant agency upon certain circumstances, including
circumstances related to the Medical Board of
California's diversion program, which no longer exists.
3.Creates the Speech-Language Pathology and Audiology
Board to license and regulate speech-language
pathologists and audiologists; establishes minimum
requirements for audiologist aides and who works under
the supervision of an audiologist and sets specified
educational and curriculum standards for audiologist
licensure.
4.The Occupational Therapy Practice Act provides for the
licensure and regulation of occupational therapists by
the California Board of Occupational Therapy (CBOT);
prohibits occupational therapy assistants from
supervising aides engaged in client-related tasks;
defines hand therapy as the art and science of hand,
wrist and forearm rehabilitation requiring comprehensive
knowledge of the upper extremity; and provides for the
minimizing the transmission risk of blood-borne
infectious diseases.
5.Establishes the Board of Vocational Nursing and
Psychiatric Technicians to license and regulate
vocational nurses and psychiatric technicians and allows
interim permits to be given to vocational nursing and
psychiatric technician licensure applicants, whose
licensing examination results are pending, to practice
their skills.
6.Provides for the licensure and regulation of hearing aid
dispensers by the Hearing Aid Dispensers Bureau; permits
a temporary license, valid for six months, to be issued
to a licensure applicant who has demonstrated that he or
she will be supervised or trained by a hearing aid
dispenser; and specifies that the temporary license may
be renewed twice for an additional period of six months.
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7.The Respiratory Care Practice Act provides for the
licensure and regulation of respiratory care
practitioners by the Respiratory Care Board (RCB) of
California and authorizes the RCB to deny, suspend or
revoke a respiratory care license if the licensee
obtains or possesses, furnishes, administers or uses a
controlled substance or dangerous drug unless directed
by an authorized health care practitioner.
8.The Pharmacy Law provides for the licensure and
regulation of pharmacists and pharmacies by the
California State Board of Pharmacy (BOP)
9.Establishes the Acupuncture Board to license and
regulate acupuncturists and specifies five board members
constitutes a quorum.
10.Provides for the licensure and regulation of
psychologists, social workers and marriage and family
therapists by the Board of Behavioral Sciences (BBS);
requires the BBS to regulate educational psychologists;
and specifies prohibited acts for all BBS licensees.
11.Appropriates specified sums from the Dental Auxiliary
Fund to the Committee on Dental Auxiliaries for
operating expenses required to manage the dental hygiene
licensing examination.
This bill:
1.Makes the following change pertaining to the Acupuncture
Board:
A. Defines quorum as four members of the board and
specifies that one of the four must be an
acupuncturist.
2.Makes the following changes pertaining to the BBS:
A. Limits the total number of registrants under the
supervision of a board licensee in private practice
to two associate clinical social workers (ASWs) or
marriage and family therapist interns at any one
time.
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B. Requires the disclosure of a supervisor's name,
license title and license number on advertisements
related to services provided by.
C. Adds the subversion of the examination process
to the definition of unprofessional conduct.
D. Adds MFTs and ASWs to the list of licensees
permitted to petition the BBS for the reinstatement
of a revoked or suspended license or modification
of any penalties imposed by the board.
E. Makes clarifying and conforming changes to the
eligibility requirements and examination retention
schedule for BBS licensees.
F. Exempts signs in religious buildings or notices
in bulletins from religious organizations from the
advertising provisions.
G. Permits group supervision of LCSW applicants to
be provided in one-hour increments, as long as both
increments are provided in the same week as the
experience claimed.
H. Prohibits ASW registrants from renewing their
registration more than five times to prevent them
from providing intern services indefinitely and
upon the fifth registration, prohibits the ASW
registrant from volunteering or working in a
private practice setting.
I. Deletes the "annual" reference to renewal fees
as the fees are biennial.
3.Makes the following change pertaining to the Board of
Vocational Nursing and Psychiatric Technicians:
A. Establishes a four-month filing deadline and
subsequent expiration dates for interim permits and
removes references to "approved" programs.
4.Makes the following changes pertaining to the California
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Board of Occupational Therapy (CBOT):
A. Changes the status of occupational therapy
assistants from "certified" to "licensed"
throughout the statue
B. Amends a number of outdated provisions and makes
technical changes.
C. Establishes the criteria, requirements and
restrictions for placing a license in "retired"
status.
D. Includes occupational therapists (OTs) in the
list of health care provider authorized to provide
in-state or out-of-state telephone medical services
(BPC 4999.2) and grants OTs access to their
patients' health records.
5.Makes the following changes pertaining to the Board of
Pharmacy (BOP):
A. Requires all board licensed facilities to join
the board's e-mail notification list within 60 days
of obtaining or renewing a license.
B. Clarifies when a pharmacist-in-charge or
designated representative-in-charge must notify the
board that he/she is no longer serving in such a
capacity.
C. Explicitly states that a person cannot act as a
nonresident pharmacy unless he or she has obtained
a license from the state.
D. Clarifies procedures to be followed by a
pharmacy when identifying a pharmacist-in-charge as
well as the procedures to notify the board when a
change in pharmacist-in-charge has occurred. In
addition, this section allows for the use of an
interim pharmacist-in-charge, for a period not
greater than 120 days, when a pharmacy is unable to
identify a permanent new pharmacist-in-charge
within 30 days as required by board regulation.
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E. Allows pharmacies to accept the return of
needles and syringes from the public, if contained
in a sharps container, as defined by law.
F. Clarifies the procedures to be followed by a
wholesaler when identifying a designated
representative-in-charge as well as the procedures
to notify the board when a change in the designated
representative-in-charge has occurred.
G. Clarifies the procedures to be followed by a
veterinary food-animal drug retailer when
identifying a designated representative-in-charge
as well as the procedures to notify the board when
a change in the designated representative-in-charge
has occurred.
6.Makes the following change pertaining to the Dental
Hygiene Committee:
A. Corrects the name of a fund administered by the
Dental Board of California (changes Dental
Auxiliary Fund to Dental Hygiene Fund) and
specifies money from the fund is to be transferred
to the Dental Hygiene Committee, which was
previously called the Committee on Dental
Auxiliaries (Uncodified language in Section 3 of AB
539 [Laird], Chapter 294, Statutes of 2004).
7.Makes the following change pertaining to the Hearing Aid
Dispensers Bureau:
A. Permits the Bureau to issue a new trainee
license to a previous trainee license holder/
B. Requires licensees to notify the Bureau of
address changes within 30 days.
C. Allows the Bureau to inspect records relates to
the sale and fitting of hearing (BPC Section 3366)
and deleted obsolete language.
8.Makes the following changes pertaining to the Medical
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Board of California (MBC):
A. Adds special faculty permit holders to the
definition of licentiates for the peer review
process.
B. Deletes obsolete code sections regarding the
MBC's diversion program, which sunset last year.
9.Makes the following changes pertaining to the
Speech-Language Pathology and Audiology Board (SLPAB):
A. Authorizes audiology aides to work under general
supervision of audiologists to allow audiologists
to tend to more complex diagnostic or clinical
services. Requires the SLPAB to specify, by
regulation, the appropriate level of supervision
for specified duties.
B. Changes the entry level licensing requirements
for audiologists from a master's degree model to
the doctoral training standard to reflect current
industry and educational standards for
audiologists.
10.Makes the following changes pertaining to the
Respiratory Care Board of California (RCB):
A. Amends BPC Section 3740 reference the "Committee
on Accreditation for Respiratory Care or its
successor" as the recognized accreditation agency
for approved respiratory care education programs.
B. Permits the RCB to take disciplinary action
against a licensee practicing respiratory care
while under the influence of drugs or alcohol and
limits the RCB's action to the timeframe in which
the individual applies for licensure or is licensed
by the Board.
C. Authorizes the Board to inactivate the license
of any licensee who fails to provide requested
information pertaining to his or her conviction
record within 30 days.
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Comments
This bill is one of three Committee bills authored by the
Business, Professions and Economic Development Committee
that are intended to consolidate a number of
non-controversial provisions related to various regulatory
programs governed by the Business and Professions Code, and
generally located within the DCA. Consolidating the
provisions in one bill is designed to relieve the various
licensing boards from the necessity and burden of having
separate measures for a number of non-controversial
revisions.
Many of the provisions make minor, technical and updating
changes, while other provisions are substantive changes
which are intended to improve the ability of the various
licensing programs to efficiently and effectively
administer their respective licensing laws. However, as a
committee bill, if controversy or opposition should arise
regarding any provision that cannot be resolved, then that
provision will be removed from the bill. This will
eliminate the chance of placing any of the other provisions
in jeopardy.
FISCAL EFFECT : Appropriation: No Fiscal Com.: Yes
Local: Yes
SUPPORT : (Verified 4/27/09)
Board of Behavioral Sciences
Board of Vocational Nursing and Psychiatric Technicians
California Academy of Audiology
California Acupuncture Board
Medical Board of California
Respiratory Care Board of California
Speech-Language Pathology and Audiology Board
Occupational Therapy Association of California
JJA:do 5/19/09 Senate Floor Analyses
SUPPORT/OPPOSITION: SEE ABOVE
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