BILL NUMBER: SB 594 AMENDED
BILL TEXT
AMENDED IN SENATE MAY 25, 2011
AMENDED IN SENATE MAY 11, 2011
AMENDED IN SENATE APRIL 28, 2011
INTRODUCED BY Senator Wolk
FEBRUARY 17, 2011
An act to amend Sections 101150 and 101160 of, and to add Sections
101161 and 101162 to, the Health and Safety Code, relating to public
health.
LEGISLATIVE COUNSEL'S DIGEST
SB 594, as amended, Wolk. Local public health laboratories.
Existing law establishes the State Department of Public Health and
sets forth its powers and duties relating to the prevention and
control of disease, including, but not limited to, the duty to
approve local public health laboratories.
This bill would recast those provisions to specify the duties of
the local public health laboratories, to require the department to
develop the examination for the certificate of public health
microbiologist for public health laboratories in consultation with
the California Association of Public Health Laboratory Directors, to
require the department to adopt regulations related to training
laboratories and continuing education requirements, and to define
related terms . The bill would authorize the department to
charge a fee as specified for providing, approving, and
monitoring the continuing education program . By
By requiring that local agencies
to comply with these certification
requirements, this bill would impose a state-mandated local program.
The California Constitution requires the state to reimburse local
agencies and school districts for certain costs mandated by the
state. Statutory provisions establish procedures for making that
reimbursement.
This bill would provide that, if the Commission on State Mandates
determines that the bill contains costs mandated by the state,
reimbursement for those costs shall be made pursuant to these
statutory provisions.
Vote: majority. Appropriation: no. Fiscal committee: yes.
State-mandated local program: yes.
THE PEOPLE OF THE STATE OF CALIFORNIA DO ENACT AS FOLLOWS:
SECTION 1. Section 101150 of the Health and Safety Code is amended
to read:
101150. (a) For the purpose of protecting the community and the
public health, the local health department of a city or county shall
have available the services of a public health laboratory for the
examination of specimens from suspected cases of infectious and
environmental diseases, that may include, but need not be limited to,
the examination of specimens from milk, milk products, waters, food
products, vectors, and the environment.
(b) The public health laboratory shall provide the analyses
required to assist in community disease surveillance and to meet the
responsibilities and support the programs of the local health
department.
(c) In matters concerning the public's health, the public health
laboratory director shall be responsible to the local health officer
whose duty it is to enforce the law in accordance with Section
101030, 101375, 101460, or 101470. This subdivision does not preclude
the local health department from requiring the public health
laboratory director to be administratively responsible to other local
health department personnel.
(d) After consulting with the health officer, a local health
department may contract with any official city or county public
health laboratory or with the laboratories of the State Department of
Public Health to provide the services required by this chapter.
(e) The laboratories of the State Department of Public Health are
hereby designated as the public health laboratory for all local
health department jurisdictions that do not otherwise have access to
local public health laboratory service.
SEC. 2. Section 101160 of the Health and Safety Code is amended to
read:
101160. (a) Any city or county public health laboratory
established for the purposes set forth in this chapter and its
personnel shall be certified by the State Department of Public Health
to be in compliance with state and federal statutory or regulatory
requirements pertaining to municipal and county public health
laboratories and public health laboratory personnel pursuant to
applicable provisions of Title 17 of the California Code of
Regulations, including, but not limited to, Sections 1076, 1078, and
1079, and in compliance with the requirements of CLIA.
(b) For purposes of this article, the following terms have the
following meanings:
(1) "CLIA" means the federal Clinical Laboratory Improvement
Amendments of 1988 (42 U.S.C. Sec. 263a; Public Law 100-578) and the
regulations adopted thereunder by the federal Health Care Financing
Administration and effective on January 1, 1994, or any later date,
when adopted in California pursuant to subdivision (b) of Section
1208 of the Business and Professions Code.
(2) "Public health laboratory director" means a person who meets
the CLIA requirements for laboratory director and who is qualified by
the State Department of Public Health to direct a public health
laboratory certified under this article and pursuant to applicable
provisions of Title 17 of the California Code of Regulations,
including, but not limited to, Section 1302.
(3) "Public health microbiologist" means a person who meets the
CLIA requirements for testing personnel and who is authorized to
perform laboratory tests or analyses pursuant to a certificate issued
under this article and applicable provisions of Title 17 of the
California Code of Regulations, including, but not limited to,
Section 1079.
(4) "Public health microbiologist-trainee" means a person meeting
the academic qualifications and approved by the State Department of
Public Health to train in an approved public health laboratory
leading to examination and certification as a public health
microbiologist under this article and pursuant to applicable
provisions of Title 17 of the California Code of Regulations,
including, but not limited to, Section 1080.
SEC. 3. Section 101161 is added to the Health and Safety Code, to
read:
101161. The examination developed pursuant to Section 1079(c) of
Title 17 of the California Code of Regulations shall be developed in
consultation with the California Association of Public Health
Laboratory Directors.
SEC. 4. Section 101162 is added to the Health and Safety Code, to
read:
101162. The State Department of Public Health, by January 1,
2013 2014 , shall adopt regulations, in
consultation with the California Association of Public Health
Laboratory Directors, to do all of the following:
(a) Establish minimum requirements for training laboratories that
train public health microbiologist-trainees.
(b) Approve of and monitor a program of continuing education for
public health microbiologists certified pursuant to this article.
(c) (1) Require a maximum of 12 hours of
continuing education completed within a 12-month period, or 24 hours
of continuing education completed within a 24-month period, as a
condition for renewal of a certificate issued under this article.
(2) The department may charge public health microbiologists a fee,
not exceeding the reasonable amount necessary to cover the costs of
providing, approving, and monitoring the continuing education
program, as applicable. No fee shall be imposed on a public health
laboratory, or county or city health department, for approving or
renewing any certificate or maintaining the continuing education
program pursuant to this article.
SEC. 5. If the Commission on State Mandates determines that this
act contains costs mandated by the state, reimbursement to local
agencies and school districts for those costs shall be made pursuant
to Part 7 (commencing with Section 17500) of Division 4 of Title 2 of
the Government Code.