BILL NUMBER: SB 1184	INTRODUCED
	BILL TEXT


INTRODUCED BY   Senator Cannella

                        FEBRUARY 18, 2016

   An act to amend Section 128200 of the Health and Safety Code,
relating to health care.


	LEGISLATIVE COUNSEL'S DIGEST


   SB 1184, as introduced, Cannella. Health care: workforce training
programs.
   Existing law, the Song-Brown Health Care Workforce Training Act,
declares the intent of the Legislature to increase the number of
students and residents receiving quality education and training in
specified primary care specialties and as primary care physician's
assistants, primary care nurse practitioners, and registered nurses.
   This bill would make technical, nonsubstantive changes to those
provisions.
   Vote: majority. Appropriation: no. Fiscal committee: no.
State-mandated local program: no.


THE PEOPLE OF THE STATE OF CALIFORNIA DO ENACT AS FOLLOWS:

  SECTION 1.  Section 128200 of the Health and Safety Code is amended
to read:
   128200.  (a) This article shall be  known  
known,  and may be  cited  cited,  as
the Song-Brown Health Care Workforce Training Act.
   (b) (1)  The Legislature hereby finds and declares that physicians
engaged in family medicine are in very short supply in California.
The current emphasis placed on specialization in medical education
has resulted in a shortage of physicians trained to provide
comprehensive primary health care to families. The Legislature hereby
declares that it regards the furtherance of a greater supply of
competent family physicians to be a public purpose of great
importance and further declares the establishment of the program
pursuant to this article to be a desirable, necessary, and economical
method of increasing the number of family physicians to provide
needed medical services to the people of California. The Legislature
further declares that it is to the benefit of the state to assist in
increasing the number of competent family physicians graduated by
colleges and universities of this state to provide primary health
care services to families within the state.
   (2) The Legislature finds that the shortage of family physicians
can be improved by the placing of a higher priority by public and
private medical schools, hospitals, and other health care delivery
systems in this state, on the recruitment and improved training of
medical students and residents to meet the need for family
physicians. To help accomplish this goal, each medical school in
 California   the state  is encouraged to
organize a strong family medicine program or department. It is the
intent of the Legislature that the programs or departments be headed
by a physician who possesses specialty certification in the field of
family medicine, and has broad clinical experience in the field of
family medicine.
   (3) The Legislature further finds that encouraging the training of
primary care physician's assistants and primary care nurse
practitioners will assist in making primary health care services more
accessible to the  citizenry,   residents 
and will, in conjunction with the training of family physicians,
lead to an improved health care delivery system in 
California   .   the state. 
   (4) Community hospitals in general and rural community hospitals
in particular, as well as other health care delivery systems, are
encouraged to develop family medicine residencies in affiliation or
association with accredited medical schools, to help meet the need
for family physicians in geographical areas of the state with
recognized family primary health care needs. Utilization of expanded
resources beyond university-based teaching hospitals should be
emphasized, including facilities in rural areas wherever possible.
   (5) The Legislature also finds and declares that nurses are in
very short supply in  California.   the state.
 The Legislature hereby declares that it regards the furtherance
of a greater supply of nurses to be a public purpose of great
importance and further declares the expansion of the program pursuant
to this article to include nurses to be a desirable, necessary, and
economical method of increasing the number of nurses to provide
needed nursing services to the people of California.
   (6) It is the intent of the Legislature to provide for a program
designed primarily to increase the number of students and residents
receiving quality education and training in the primary care
specialties of family medicine, internal medicine, obstetrics and
gynecology, and pediatrics and as primary care physician's
assistants, primary care nurse practitioners, and registered nurses
and to maximize the delivery of primary care family physician
services to specific areas of California where there is a recognized
unmet priority need. This program is intended to be implemented
through contracts with accredited medical schools, teaching health
centers, programs that train primary care physician's assistants,
programs that train primary care nurse practitioners, programs that
train registered nurses, hospitals, and other health care delivery
systems based on per-student or per-resident capitation formulas. It
is further intended by the Legislature that the programs will be
professionally and administratively accountable so that the maximum
cost-effectiveness will be achieved in meeting the professional
training standards and criteria set forth in this article and Article
2 (commencing with Section 128250).