BILL ANALYSIS                                                                                                                                                                                                    �



                                                                  SB 289
                                                                  Page  1

          Date of Hearing:   August 8, 2012

                        ASSEMBLY COMMITTEE ON APPROPRIATIONS
                                Felipe Fuentes, Chair

                  SB 289 (Hern�ndez) - As Amended:  August 6, 2012 

          Policy Committee:                             HealthVote:16-0

          Urgency:     No                   State Mandated Local Program: 
          No     Reimbursable:              No

           SUMMARY  

          This bill expands the number of, and further specifies, entities 
          that can be approved by the Department of Public Health to offer 
          training in clinical laboratory science.  

           FISCAL EFFECT  

          Negligible state fiscal effect.

           COMMENTS  

           1)Rationale  .  The author believes this bill will expand the 
            number of clinical laboratory scientist (CLS) training 
            opportunities, and allow entities to spread the high cost of 
            training among a number of sites.      

           2)Background  .  A CLS is a healthcare professional who performs 
            laboratory analyses in a clinical laboratory using samples 
            from the human body.  CLSs work in hospitals, private clinical 
            labs and doctor's offices, as well as research labs.  
            Licensure requires a Bachelor's degree that includes specific 
            coursework, a one-year internship in an approved clinical 
            training program, and passage of a written exam.   A recent 
            white paper produced by the Healthcare Laboratory Workforce 
            Initiative, an effort spearheaded by California hospitals, 
            cites a number of studies pointing to dramatic and growing 
            shortages of CLS personnel.  The paper cites a dearth of 
            training programs and their lack of capacity as a major 
            barrier to producing a greater supply of CLSs.  

            Under current law, CDPH Lab Field Services (LFS) is authorized 
            to approve programs seeking to provide instruction in clinical 








                                                                  SB 289
                                                                  Page  2

            laboratory science. Most training programs are administered by 
            institutes of higher education, but some are run by hospitals 
            or laboratory companies.  Programs administered by colleges 
            and universities are generally affiliated with a number of 
            training sites such as private and hospital-based clinical 
            labs.  Each programs and each training site must be approved 
            by LFS.  

            LFS indicates many training sites are approved to train far 
            more CLS trainees than they actually train at any given time.  
            Training sites have cited the complexity and expense of 
            running an approved training program as a barrier to 
            increasing capacity for training large numbers of CLSs. Sites 
            often hire CLS trainees after they complete training and gain 
            licensure.  For clinical labs that provide training, there are 
            significant costs and limited incentives to train numbers of 
            CLSs that exceed site-specific workforce needs.  Programs 
            indicate CLS training programs can cost $55,000 to $110,000 
            per year per student.

            Training programs indicate a provision that exempted 
            nationally accredited schools from obtaining approval for each 
            clinical training site, which was removed from the bill in the 
            Assembly Health committee, would have streamlined the 
            development of a "consortium" approach whereby programs would 
            gain the flexibility to divvy up training modules among 
            multiple sites.  Programs maintain it is difficult to gain LFS 
            approval for novel training programs that coordinate training 
            among multiple sites, even though LFS is not prohibited by law 
            or regulation from approving such programs.


           Analysis Prepared by  :    Lisa Murawski / APPR. / (916) 319-2081