BILL ANALYSIS �
SB 1083
Page 1
Date of Hearing: August 6, 2014
ASSEMBLY COMMITTEE ON APPROPRIATIONS
Mike Gatto, Chair
SB 1083 (Pavley) - As Introduced: February 19, 2014
Policy Committee: Business and
Professions Vote: 14-0
Urgency: No State Mandated Local Program:
No Reimbursable: No
SUMMARY
This bill allows a physician assistant (PA) to certify
disability for purposes of disability insurance (DI) by
including this task in the PA scope of practice, and listing PAs
as practitioners authorized to perform medical certification for
DI.
FISCAL EFFECT
1)One-time contract costs to the Employment Development
Department (EDD) of approximately $4 million to modify and
test existing Information Technology (IT) systems
(Unemployment Compensation Disability Fund). Ongoing costs are
likely minor.
EDD indicates in order to comply with this bill, it would need
to reprogram the SDI Online system to accommodate the change,
make changes to the data base that stores SDI claims, update
the document management system used to process paper
documents, and update the interface with the Department of
Consumer Affairs records, among other things. These
programming efforts also require testing to ensure all
interfaces work properly.
EDD indicates verifying the ability of PAs to certify
disability is more complicated than for other practitioners
from an IT perspective, because PAs must be associated with a
physician and have a valid Delegation of Services agreement in
place. This small extra step increases somewhat the estimated
reprogramming and associated testing cost.
SB 1083
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2)Minor costs, likely under $100,000 annually, to Department of
Consumer Affairs (DCA) to update an existing interface with
EDD to share PA licensure data (Physician Assistant Fund).
COMMENTS
1)Purpose of this bill . This bill authorizes a PA to certify
disability for purposes of obtaining DI. The author believes
restrictions related to EDD forms are inconsistent with the
scope of practice of a PA, which allows PAs to act as an agent
of their supervising physician in performing medical
examinations and other medical services. This bill is
sponsored by the California Academy of Physician Assistants.
2)Background . Existing law authorizes a PA to perform medical
services set forth in regulations, when the services are
rendered under the supervision of a licensed physician and
surgeon who is available to the PA for consultation.
The majority of workers in California are covered by the State
Disability Insurance program administered by EDD. DI provides
short-term wage replacement to disabled workers. Receiving DI
benefits requires a medical certification of disability that
currently must be completed by a dentist, podiatrist, or nurse
practitioner under certain criteria.
Analysis Prepared by : Lisa Murawski / APPR. / (916) 319-2081