New Healthcare Laws
YOU
AB 1668 | Investigational Drugs, Biological Products and Devices
AB 38 | Mental Health: Early Diagnosis and Preventive Treatment Program
AB 1668 addresses the national “right to try” movement, which seeks to expand access to not-yet-approved treatments for people who fail to get into clinical trials. AB 1668 authorizes the manufacturer of an investigational drug, biological product, or device not yet approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to make the investigational product available to an eligible patient with a serious or immediately life-threatening disease or condition, as specified, when that patient has considered all other treatment options currently approved by the FDA, has been unable to participate in a relevant clinical trial, and for whom the investigational drug has been recommended by the patient’s primary physician and a consulting physician.
AB 38 establishes the Early Diagnosis and Preventive Treatment (EDAPT) Program Fund in the state Treasury to provide funding to the Regents of the University of California for the purpose of providing reimbursement to an EDAPT program using an integrated system of care for early intervention, assessment, diagnosis, treatment plan and necessary services for individuals with severe mental illness and children with emotional disturbances.
SB 1177 | Physician and Surgeon Health and Wellness Program This California Medical Association (CMA)-sponsored bill authorizes the Medical Board of California (MBC) to establish a Physician and Surgeon Health and Wellness Program for early identification and appropriate interventions to support a physician or surgeon in his or her rehabilitation from substance abuse. It requires the Board to contract for the program’s administration. Program participants are required to pay for services, including expenses related to treatment, monitoring and laboratory tests, as provided. It creates an account to support the program and prohibits funds in the account from being used to cover costs of participation.
SB 1261 | Physicians and Surgeons: Residency Fee Exemption SB 1261 amends the Medical Practice Act that provides for the licensure and regulation of physicians and removes the requirement that a physician and surgeon reside in California in order to receive a license fee waiver when the license is for the sole purpose of providing voluntary and unpaid services.
AB 2024 | Critical Access Hospitals: Employment AB 2024 lifts a century-old ban on direct physician employment. It allows California’s smallest and most remote hospitals to directly employ physicians rather than hire them as independent contractors. AB 2024 will apply only to critical access hospitals, small hospitals with 25 or fewer beds that are typically located in remote areas of the state, and has been in effect since Jan. 1.
YOUR PRACTICE AB 1676 | Employers: Wage Discrimination Existing law prohibits an employer from paying an employee at wage rates less than the rates paid to employees of the opposite sex in the same establishment for equal work and establishes exceptions to the prohibition based on any bona fide factor other than sex. This bill specifies that prior salary cannot, by itself, justify any disparity in compensation under the bona fide exception to the above prohibition.
SB 482 | Controlled Substances: CURES Database SB 482 requires a prescriber to consult the Controlled Substance Utilization Review and Evaluation System (CURES) no earlier than 24 hours or the previous business day prior to prescribing a Schedule II, III and Schedule IV controlled substance to the patient for the first time and at least once every four months thereafter, if the substance remains part of the patient’s treatment. This bill would exempt a veterinarian and a pharmacist from this requirement. It would also exempt healthcare practitioners from this requirement under specified circumstances including if prescribing, ordering, administering or furnishing a controlled substance to a patient receiving hospice care, to a patient admitted to a specified facility for use while on facility premises, or to a patient as part of a treatment for a surgical procedure in a specified facility if the quantity of the controlled substance does not exceed a non-refillable fiveday supply of the controlled substance. The measure seeks to crack down on a practice called “doctorshopping” in which addicts use multiple providers to obtain prescriptions for narcotic painkillers.
JANUARY / FEBRUARY 2017 | THE BULLETIN | 9