BILL ANALYSIS �
Senate Appropriations Committee Fiscal Summary
Senator Christine Kehoe, Chair
SB 747 (Kehoe)
Hearing Date: 5/9/2011 Amended: 4/25/2011
Consultant: Bob Franzoia Policy Vote: B,P&ED 6-2
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BILL SUMMARY: SB 747 would require physicians and surgeons,
physician assistants, registered nurses, licensed vocational
nurses, nurse practitioners, psychologists, marriage and family
therapists, licensed clinical social workers, psychiatric
technicians, and certified nurse assistants to complete at least
one course of two to five hours in duration that provides
continuing education (CE) instruction on cultural competency,
sensitivity, and best practices for providing adequate care to
lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender persons. This bill would
require the applicable licensing or certifying entity to enforce
these requirements. These new requirements would become
effective on January 1, 2013.
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Fiscal Impact (in thousands)
Major Provisions 2011-12 2012-13 2013-14 Fund
Continuing education
requirement
- BRN* $35 $71 $71
Special**
- BVNPT*** $35 $61 $61
Special****
- Other Minor, absorbable costs, ongoing
Special*****
* Board of Registered Nursing
** Board of Registered Nursing Fund
*** Board of Vocational Nursing and Psychiatric Technicians
**** Vocational Nursing and Psychiatric Technicians Fund
***** Psychology Fund, Contingent Fund of the Medical Board of
California, Behavioral Science Examiners' Fund
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STAFF COMMENTS: As noted by the policy committee, physicians and
surgeons, physician assistants, registered nurses, licensed
vocational nurses, psychologists, psychiatric technicians, MFTs
and clinical social workers must complete continuing education
courses to renew their license. Healing arts boards generally
do not mandate the courses that must be taken but they must be
relevant to the licensee's area of practice. However, there are
certain courses that are required to be taken by specific
licensees.
SB 747 (Kehoe)
Page 3
The fiscal impact of a CE requirement on a licensing board is
the cost to audit each licensee for compliance. CE audits may
be performed in different ways. For example, the Medical Board
of California continuing medical education (CME) audit was
performed in one batch for the entire year. A random sample of
one percent of licensed physicians and surgeons was selected and
approximately 1,200 letters were sent by certified mail. In
order to complete the audit, a large conference room was used
exclusively by board licensing staff for several months to
complete audit tasks. The large increase in workload of
performing the CME audit once each year in one batch proved to
be unmanageable. In response, the board shifted to performing
the audit on a monthly basis which resulted in a more effective
and manageable workload.
While it appears that most boards, which are funded generally by
licensing fees, can absorb the additional workload, the Board of
Registered Nursing and the Board of Vocational Nursing and
Psychiatric Technicians may lack sufficient resources to conduct
CE audits of licensees and CE providers.
.