BILL ANALYSIS �
Senate Appropriations Committee Fiscal Summary
Senator Kevin de Le�n, Chair
AB 333 (Wieckowski) - Medical waste.
Amended: June 24, 2014 Policy Vote: EQ 7-0
Urgency: No Mandate: Yes (see staff comment)
Hearing Date: August 4, 2014 Consultant:
Marie Liu
This bill meets the criteria for referral to the Suspense File.
Bill Summary: AB 333 makes numerous changes to the Medical Waste
Management Act (MWMA) including, among other things, codifying
existing federal preemptions and requirements, modifying
definitions, creating procedures for the generation of medical
waste from a temporary event, modifying contracts with medical
waste transporters for the collection of fees, and preempting
local programs regarding infectious waste.
Fiscal Impact:
Initial costs of $340,000 annually from the Medical Waste
Management Fund (special) for FY 2015-16 and FY 2016-17 to
assist with compliance with the changes to the MWMA.
Initial costs of $166,000 for FY 2015-16 and FY 2016-17
then $145,000 thereafter from the Medical Waste Management
Fund to DPH to review and approve treatment technologies.
Minor revenue losses to the Medical Waste Management Fund
(special) by allowing medical waste transporters to keep an
additional 2.5% of the small generator annual fee for
administrative costs.
Unknown, possibly minor, cost pressures to the Medical
Waste Management Fund (special) by deleting the ability for
DPH to adjust multiple fees through regulation.
Background: The MWMA was created in response to several
incidents of medical waste washing up on San Diego County
beaches, as well as several reports of medical waste being
disposed of in dumpsters and trashbins. In 1989 and 1990, AB
109 (Hayden) and AB 1641 (Mojonnier) were ultimately combined to
form the MWMA to, according to the original Legislative intent,
"comprise a single, integrated, and complementary approach to
the storage, treatment, transportation, and disposal of medical
waste."
AB 333 (Wieckowski)
Page 1
The MWMA allows any local ordinance regulating infectious waste
that was in existence before 1990 and regulated both large and
small quantity generators to continue.
The MWMA also allows local governments to elect to be the
enforcement agency of the MWMA and to assess appropriate fees
for their enforcement activities. Currently 25 counties rely on
the state for enforcement.
Proposed Law: This bill has numerous provisions to modify the
MWMA. Specifically, this bill would (only provisions that
potentially have a fiscal impact are listed):
Specify that a "medical waste management plan" is a document
completed by generators of medical waste that describes how
the medical waste generated at their facility shall be
segregated, handled, stored, packaged, treated, or shipped for
treatment (�117710).
Require DPH to approve treatment technologies for the
treatment of medical waste (�117918).
Delete the ability for the Department of Public Health (DPH)
to adjust by regulation the registration and inspection fees
for small quantity generators, registration and inspection
fees for large quantity generators, application and annual
fees for transfer stations, and application fees alternative
treatment technologies (��117920, 117990, 118045, and 118245)
However, DPH would retain the ability to adjust fees by
regulations for medical waste treatment facility permits and
inspections.
Allow a medical waste transporter to retain 7.5% rather than
5% of the annual small quantity generator fee which it
collects pursuant to a contract with DPH. This bill would also
specify that generators are only required to pay the fee once
annually (�117924).
Staff Comments: Due to the large number of changes that this
bill makes to the MWMA, DPH anticipates additional temporary
workload to assist compliance with the new requirements
including meeting with stakeholder groups and local enforcement
agencies, developing training and guidance materials to assist
local enforcement agencies and the regulated industry. DPH
anticipates approximately $340,000 of additional staff workload
annually for FY 2015-16 and 2016-17 for these activities.
AB 333 (Wieckowski)
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This bill also requires DPH to approve all types of treatment
technology for infectious waste. To complete this task, DPH
anticipates initial costs of $166,000 for two years to meet with
stakeholders, review treatment technologies, and promulgate
regulations establishing a method for approval. Ongoing costs
after the initial period to review and approve new technologies
would be $145,000 annually.
This bill raises the amount that a medical waste transporter can
keep as an administrative fee from 5% to 7.5% when it has
contracted with DPH for the collection of small quantity
generator annual fees. Currently the only medical waste
transporter that has such a contract with DPH is Stericycle, the
sponsor of the bill. According to Stericycle, because the annual
fee that is being collected is only $25, the current
administrative fee of 5% or $1.25 does not cover the cost of
collecting the fee, particularly since it the fee must be
collected separately from any other billing. DPH estimates that
this provision will result in a loss of approximately $2,000 in
revenue annually.
This bill deletes the ability for DPH for adjust certain fees
through regulations, though the ability for the fees to be
adjusted by Department of Finance to reflect changes in salaries
and operating expenses will remain. Staff notes that deleting
the ability to adjust fees to cover program costs other than
through the Department of Finance for certain program increases
may make it difficult to assure that fees cover DPH's
enforcement and oversight costs. Staff notes that it is not
clear why DPH should maintain the ability to adjust fees by
regulations regarding medical waste treatment facilities, but
not other fees.