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California Psychiatric Association
Legislative Priorities for 2006

CPA 2006 Policy Platform | CPA 2006 Government Affairs Committee Authorized Positions
 

CPA 2006 Policy Platform

Quality of Care. Advocate for patients to receive the highest quality of care. Promote evidence based standards for care and services. Advocate best practices and promote the utilization of nationally recognized professional treatment guidelines. Promote the establishment of performance measures to ensure accountability.

Access to Competent Medical Care. Promote uniform standards of medical education to ensure the safe and competent medical treatment of mental illness. Ensure access to competent medical care for all Californians by increasing psychiatric residency training slots, increasing access to telepsychiatry, expanding efforts to train and support primary care physicians, and supporting efforts to increase the numbers of psychiatric specialist nurse practitioners and physician assistants. Work to establish fee schedules and adequate levels of reimbursement which promote physician participation in public and private service delivery programs. Work to establish effective incentives at the state or local level to encourage providers to work in underserved areas.

Non-discriminatory Insurance Coverage for Mental Illnesses. Work to ensure true parity of access to competent psychiatric and substance abuse care in both public and private managed care settings. Work to create a managed care environment that is patient and physician friendly. Work to reduce the regulatory burdens imposed on patients and physicians by managed care practices.

Medications. Support provision of safe and effective medications as recommended for patients by competently trained medical professionals: physicians, nurse practitioners, and physician assistants. Advocate for physician involvement in the development of any mandated formularies or medication prescribing algorithms. Support the right of patients to have full access to information on medications for their conditions, and full access to information about any restrictions to obtaining those medications. Support the ability of physicians to prescribe those medications that they believe will be most effective. Support efforts to reduce the cost of medications for patients and health care systems. Work to ensure provision of a full range of effective medications for patients in health maintenance organizations, local and state public mental health systems, prisons, and jails.

Services for Children and Adolescents. Work to increase collaboration between State and county level departments of mental health, social services, probation, educational institutions, and regional centers. Ensure that funding for children’s services is preserved or expanded, and that the process of access to funding sources is streamlined. Increase access to local systems of care for children placed out of county. Seek to promote early diagnosis and treatment for all children, including foster children.

Medical Injury Compensation Reform Act - MICRA. Protect the integrity of the California medical malpractice law in order to assure that physician resources are directed to providing medical care and not to prohibitively high insurance premiums.

De-Criminalize the Mentally Ill. Advocate for adequate funding for the public mental health system so that un-treated and under-treated individuals with mental illness do not by default end up in jails and prisons. Support programs that divert those who would not have committed crimes except for their illness from the criminal justice system into treatment. Advocate for adequate psychiatric care for mentally ill prisoners and detainees of the juvenile justice system, including modern medication. Assure that the severely mentally ill and sexual predators are separated in facilities and that medical disorders are not confused with anti-social behavior. Encourage police training on the subject of mental illness.

Violence Prevention. Support legislation that embodies reasoned regulatory action relating to violence. Support legislation that discourages the purchase of handguns and places strong controls on availability of all types of firearms to private citizens. CPA’s focus on domestic violence acknowledges the negative psychiatric impacts of domestic violence and positive impacts of domestic violence prevention. Focus on prevention of school violence through removing disincentives to the identification and treatment of severely emotionally disturbed children who may potentially be violent.

Substance and Alcohol Abuse. Work to increase access to and improve the quality of treatment provided to persons with a serious mental illness who also have a co-occurring substance abuse disorder. Work to decrease funding silos which isolate mental health and substance abuse treatment. Work to promote and increase funding for integrated treatment programs.

Public Mental Health System/including foster children. Assure the integrity of, and adequate funding for, the public mental health system, including funding for medical treatment and full utilization of the skills of psychiatrists as physicians. Continue to support and advocate for AB 34/AB 2034 homeless mentally ill outreach programs. Support full implementation of AB 1421 programs for assisted outpatient treatment. Advocate for mentally ill offender treatment programs. Assure that all programs measure performance and obtain good outcome evaluations.

Community Housing. Support the development of affordable, appropriate housing in the community for those with mental disorders. Advocate for supported housing and the appropriate provision of community based, comprehensive care that allows treatment in the community and in homes.

Suicide. Work actively with other organizations to significantly reduce the rate of suicide by promoting treatment for mental disorders, creating awareness in the legislature and public that suicide is a preventable public health issue, coordinating state and local government agencies, and advocating in support of suicide prevention policies.

Seclusion and Restraint. Work with other organizations to improve the laws and practices governing seclusion and restraint to assure patient and staff safety.

Psychiatric Leadership. Work to insure institutional support for medical and psychiatric leadership in all health care systems in which mental illness is addressed.

Hospital Bed Shortages. Work towards the amelioration of the shortage of inpatient psychiatric beds. Work to ameliorate the lack of adequate capacity in the existing mental health system to provide alternative care for those patients with more severe and urgent needs for care. Work to provide capacity in county of residence, particularly for children and adolescents.

Confidentiality and Patient Privacy. Information contained in medical records is highly sensitive material. Work to ensure protections for patient confidentiality, so that personal information is not inappropriately disclosed. Work to ensure that legitimate purposes for access do not include personal information when aggregate, i.e. non -personally identifiable information would suffice. Work to educate policy makers and the public that confidentiality of medical information is prerequisite to high quality medical care.

 

CPA Government Affairs Committee Authorized Positions

CPA Government Affairs Committee Authorized Positions
2006 Legislative Session
Bill No.
Author		 Title RA
Position		 Summary/Effects Status
AB 733
Nation		 Psychotherapists: duty to warn. Support Existing law provides that no monetary liability and no cause of action shall arise against a psychotherapist, as defined, for failing to warn and protect from a patient's threatened violent behavior except where the patient has communicated to the psychotherapist a serious threat of physical violence against a reasonably identifiable victim or victims. This bill would revise that provision to specify that it applies where the patient himself or herself has communicated the threat to the psychotherapist. The bill would also encourage a therapist, if a patient's threat has been communicated to the therapist by a third party, to contact the patient to the extent that the therapist reasonably believes is necessary to assess whether the patient poses a serious threat of physical violence against a reasonably identifiable victim or victims. The bill would specify that the amendments apply only to actions filed on or after January 1, 2006. 06/16/2005-In committee: Set, first hearing. Hearing canceled at the request of author.
AB 1302
Horton, Jerome		 Office of Administrative Law: regulations. Watch Existing law provides that, if a state agency makes a finding that the adoption of a regulation or order of repeal is necessary for the immediate preservation of the public peace, health and safety or general welfare, the regulation or order of repeal may be adopted as an emergency regulation or order of repeal. Under existing law, a regulation, amendment, or order of repeal adopted as an emergency regulation remains in effect no more than 120 days unless the adopting agency complies with certain requirements. This bill would require an agency that is adopting an emergency regulation to mail at least 5 working days prior to submission of an emergency regulation to the office a notice of proposed emergency action to every person who has filed a request for notice of regulatory action with the agency unless the emergency situation clearly poses such an immediate, serious harm that delaying action to allow public comment would be inconsistent with the public interest. This bill contains other related provisions. 02/15/2006-From committee chair, with author's amendments: Amend, and re-refer to committee. Read second time, amended, and re-referred to Com. on JUD.
AB 1591
Chan		 Medi-Cal: nurse practitioners. Approve Existing law provides for the Medi-Cal program, which is administered by the State Department of Health Services, pursuant to which medical benefits are provided to public assistance recipients and certain other low-income persons. Existing law provides that services provided by a certified nurse practitioner are covered under the Medi-Cal program, and requires the department to permit a certified family nurse practitioner or a certified pediatric nurse practitioner to bill Medi-Cal independently for his or her services. This bill would, instead, require that the department permit any certified nurse practitioner to bill for these services. 02/09/2006-Referred to Com. on HEALTH.
AB 1994
Leslie		 Health records: minors: access. Approve Existing law, with specified exceptions, authorizes any adult patient of a health care provider, any minor patient authorized by law to consent to medical treatment, and any patient representative, to be entitled to inspect patient records, upon presenting to the health care provider a written request for those records, and payment of reasonable clerical costs incurred in locating and making the records available. Under existing law, the representative of a minor patient is not entitled to inspect or obtain copies of the minor's patient records under certain circumstances, including when the minor' s health care provider determines that access to the requested patient records would be detrimental to the provider's professional relationship with the minor patient or the minor's physical safety or psychological well-being. Existing law exempts the health care provider from liability for making the decision as to whether the minor's records are available for inspection, except in cases of bad faith. This bill would specify that the exemption from liability would also apply with respect to a health care provider's decision whether to make the minor patient's records available for copying. 04/05/2006-From committee: Do pass, and re-refer to Com. on JUD. Re-referred. (Ayes 14. Noes 0.) (April 4).
04/18/06 9 a.m. - Room 4202 ASM JUDICIARY
AB 2004
Yee		 Medi-Cal: juveniles: incarceration. Approve Existing law provides for the Medi-Cal program, which is administered by the State Department of Health Services and under which qualified low-income persons receive health care benefits. Existing law excludes from coverage under the Medi-Cal program care or services for any individual who is an inmate of an institution, except as specified. This bill would prohibit the use of inmate status to terminate the eligibility of a minor under the Medi-Cal program. The bill would require that the department suspend the health care benefits for, but not terminate the Medi-Cal eligibility of, a minor who is an inmate of an institution. It would require the department to ensure that, upon the termination of the minor's status as an inmate of an institution, he or she has immediate access to health care services covered under the Medi-Cal program. The bill would provide that a minor for whom a dispositional hearing has been held, and who is physically present in a juvenile detention facility pending placement or replacement in a setting in which he or she will be eligible to receive health care benefits under the Medi-Cal program, shall not be considered an inmate of an institution for these purposes. 04/04/2006-Do pass as amended and be re-referred to the Committee on Appropriations.
AB 2068
Nava		 Workers' compensation: designation of physician. Approve Existing workers' compensation law generally requires employers to secure the payment of workers' compensation, including medical treatment, for injuries incurred by their employees that arise out of, or in the course of, employment. This bill would provide that a personal physician includes a corporation, partnership, or association of licensed doctors of medicine or osteopathy, and would require the physician to agree to be the primary treating physician. This bill would also delete the April 30, 2007, repeal date and the limit on the maximum percentage of employees that may be predesignated. This bill contains other existing laws. 03/30/2006-Re-referred to Com. on INS.
04/26/06 9 a.m. - Room 437 ASM INSURANCE
AB 2257
Committee on Business and Professions		 Psychologists: records retention. Watch Existing law, the Psychology Licensing Law, provides for the licensure and regulation of the practice of psychology. A violation of that law is a crime. This bill would require a licensed psychologist to retain a patient's health service records for a minimum of 7 years from the patient's discharge date , and would also require a minor patient's health service records to be retained for a minimum of 7 years from the date the patient reaches 18 years of age. Because a violation of the bill would be a crime, it would impose a state-mandated local program. This bill contains other related provisions and other existing laws. 04/05/2006-From committee: Do pass, and re-refer to Com. on APPR. with recommendation: To Consent Calendar. Re-referred. (Ayes 10. Noes 0.) (April 4).
04/19/06 9 a.m. - Room 4202 ASM APPROPRIATIONS
AB 2317
Koretz		 Postpartum mood and anxiety disorders. Sponsor Under existing law, the maternal and child health program includes provisions for pregnancy testing, perinatal health care, child health, and nutrition. This bill would require the State Department of Health Services to conduct the Perinatal Mood and Anxiety Disorders (PMAD) Awareness Campaign to increase awareness and provide education to pregnant women and new mothers on postpartum mood and anxiety disorders, including postpartum depression, panic disorder, obsessive-compulsive disorder, and postpartum psychosis, as specified. The bill would require the department to convene a work group, which would be required,by June 1, 2008, to prepare and submit to the department specified recommendations relating to the implementation of the awareness campaign. This bill contains other related provisions. 04/04/2006-Do pass as amended and be re-referred to the Committee on Appropriations.
AB 2357
Karnette		 Assisted outpatient mental health treatment. Sponsor Existing law, Laura's Law, establishes a demonstration project in which a county may elect to participate in an assisted outpatient mental health treatment program. Under Laura's Law a court may order an adult to obtain assisted outpatient treatment if prescribed criteria are met, including, but not limited to, that the person suffers from mental illness, that there has been a clinical determination that the person is unlikely to survive safely in the community without supervision, and that the person has a history of not complying with treatment. Existing law repeals these provisions on January 1, 2008. This bill would delete the repeal date, and would thereby extend the program indefinitely. 04/06/2006-From committee: Amend, do pass as amended, and re-refer to Com. on JUD. (Ayes 13. Noes 1.) (April 4).
04/18/06 9 a.m. - Room 4202 ASM JUDICIARY
AB 2380
Dymally		 Parole: mental hospital. Approve Existing law generally regulates the granting and conditioning of parole. This bill would provide procedures for parolees who are paroled to medical facilities and who require antipsychotic medication, as specified. The bill would provide for voluntary and involuntary administration of necessary medication, as specified, for parolees. This bill contains other related provisions and other existing laws. 04/04/2006-In committee: Set, first hearing. Hearing canceled at the request of author.
AB 2730
Nation		 Medi-Cal: contract drug list: advertising. Watch Existing law provides for the Medi-Cal program, which is administered by the State Department of Health Services and under which qualified low-income persons receive health care benefits, including prescription drug benefits. This bill would make certain findings and declarations regarding direct-to-consumer advertising of prescription drugs. It would prohibit the department from entering into a contract for a drug, and from placing a drug on the Medi-Cal contract drug list, if the drug has been promoted in California through the use of direct-to-consumer advertising, as defined. The bill would, however, require the department to reimburse a provider for such a drug if the provider has obtained prior authorization from the department to prescribe the drug, or if the drug was provided to a Medi-Cal beneficiary who began using it before January 1, 2007, as part of a prescribed therapy, unless that drug is no longer prescribed for the beneficiary' s therapy. This bill contains other existing laws. 03/13/2006-Referred to Com. on HEALTH.
04/18/06 1:30 p.m. - Room 4202 ASM HEALTH
 
AB 2856
Hancock		 Informed consent: prescription medication off-label use. Oppose Existing law, the Medical Practice Act, creates the Medical Board of California that, through its divisions, is responsible for the licensure and regulation of physicians and surgeons. The act imposes certain requirements on physicians and surgeons, including requiring that they provide specified information to patients for particular treatments, and the act makes a violation of those requirements a crime. This bill would require a physician and surgeon to obtain informed consent from a patient before prescribing, administering, or furnishing a prescription medication for an off-label use, as defined. The bill would specify information that a physician and surgeon is required to provide in order to obtain the patient's informed consent. This bill contains other related provisions and other existing laws. 03/20/2006-Referred to Coms. on HEALTH and JUD.
04/18/06 1:30 p.m. - Room 4202 ASM HEALTH
SB 840
Kuehl		 Single-payer health care coverage. Watch Existing law does not provide a system of universal health care coverage for California residents. Existing law provides for the creation of various programs to provide health care services to persons who have limited incomes and meet various eligibility requirements. These programs include the Healthy Families Program administered by the Managed Risk Medical Insurance Board, and the Medi-Cal program administered by the State Department of Health Services. Existing law provides for the regulation of health care service plans by the Department of Managed Health Care and health insurers by the Department of Insurance. This bill would establish the California Health Insurance System to be administered by the newly created California Health Insurance Agency under the control of an elected Health Insurance Commissioner. The bill would make all California residents eligible for specified health care benefits under the California Health Insurance System, which would, on a single-payer basis, negotiate for or set fees for health care services provided through the system and pay claims for those services. The bill would require the health care system to be operational within 2 years of enactment, and would enact various transition provisions. The bill would require the commissioner to seek all necessary waivers, exemptions, agreements, or legislation to allow various existing federal, state, and local health care payments to be paid to the California Health Insurance System, which would then assume responsibility for all benefits and services previously paid for with those funds. This bill contains other related provisions and other existing laws. 07/12/2005-Read second time. Amended. Re-referred to Com. on RLS.
SB 1353
Romero		 Medi-Cal: provider enrollment. Approve Existing law provides for the Medi-Cal program, which is administered by the State Department of Health Services and under which qualified low-income persons receive health care benefits. This bill would provide that a physician enrolled and in good standing in the Medi-Cal program who is changing locations within the same county is eligible to continue enrollment at the new location by filing a change of location form, to be developed by the department, in lieu of submitting a complete application package. The bill would require the department to provide notice upon receipt of a form under this provision. This bill contains other related provisions and other existing laws. 03/30/2006-From committee: Do pass, but first be re-referred to Com. on APPR. (Ayes 7. Noes 0. Page 3400.) Re-referred to Com. on APPR.
SB 1356
Lowenthal		 Suicide prevention. Approve Existing law, the California Suicide Prevention Act of 2000, authorizes the State Department of Mental Health to establish and implement a suicide prevention, education, and gatekeeper training program to reduce the severity, duration, and incidence of suicidal behaviors. This bill would establish the California Suicide Prevention Act of 2006, and would require, by May 1, 2008, the State Department of Mental Health, in consultation with specified state departments, to adopt and administer a statewide strategic suicide prevention plan developed by the Suicide Prevention Advocacy Network-California. This bill contains other related provisions. 03/30/2006-From committee: Do pass, but first be re-referred to Com. on APPR. (Ayes 7. Noes 0. Page 3400.) Re-referred to Com. on APPR.
SB 1361
Vincent		 Psychologists: applicants for licensure. Spot Bill Existing law prohibits a person from engaging in the practice of psychology, or representing himself or herself to be a psychologist, without a license from the Board of Psychology. Existing law requires an applicant for licensure to comply with certain requirements, including possessing an earned doctorate degree in specified fields. This bill would include in the list of approved degrees for licensure in psychology an earned doctorate degree in an interdisciplinary or specialized area in psychology. 04/06/2006-Set for hearing April 24.
04/24/06 12 m.-2 p.m. and upon adjournment of session SEN BUSINESS, PROFESSIONS AND ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT
SB 1440
Cedillo		 Mental health treatment: exercise of rights: retaliation. Watch Existing law establishes certain rights of persons receiving voluntary or involuntarily mental health evaluation or treatment and prohibits retaliation or discrimination for the exercise of those rights. Violation of these provisions is subject to a civil penalty to be deposited into the county general fund. Existing law establishes a rebuttable presumption that any attempt to expel a patient, or any discriminatory treatment of a patient, within 120 days of the filing of a complaint by or on behalf of the patient, is retaliatory. This bill would extend this period to 150 days. 03/02/2006-To Com. on HEALTH.
SB 1550
Figueroa		 Professional Fiduciaries Act. Approve Existing law requires all private professional conservators, private professionals guardians, and private professional trustees to file a specified annual statement, under penalty of perjury, with the clerk of the court. Existing law prohibits a court from appointing a person as a conservator, guardian or trustee unless he or she is registered in the Statewide Registry maintained by the Department of Justice and has filed the annual statement with the court. This bill would enact the Professional Fiduciaries Act, which would create the Board of Professional Fiduciaries in the Department of Consumer Affairs and would require the board to license and regulate professional fiduciaries, as specified. The act would require a person acting or holding himself or herself out as a professional fiduciary to be licensed as a professional fiduciary, unless he or she is licensed as an attorney, and would require a licensee to meet certain other requirements, including filing an application for licensure signed under penalty of perjury, payment of licensing fees set by the board, and annually filing a statement containing specified information under penalty of perjury. The act would provide for the deposit of licensing fees in the Professional Fiduciaries Fund, which the bill would create and which would be the successor fund to certain fees in the Statewide Registry. The board would become inoperative on July 1, 2011, and be repealed on January 1, 2012, and its responsibilities and jurisdiction would be transferred to the Department of Justice. This bill contains other related provisions and other existing laws. 03/28/2006-Set for hearing April 17.
04/17/06 2:30 p.m. or upon adjournment of session - Room 3191 SEN BUSINESS, PROFESSIONS AND ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT
04/18/06 1:30 p.m. - Room 112 SEN JUDICIARY
SB 1616
Kuehl		 Juveniles: incarceration: Medi-Cal: SSI: SSDI. Approve Existing law provides for the Medi-Cal program, which is administered by the State Department of Health Services and under which qualified low-income persons receive health care benefits. The Medi-Cal program is, in part, governed and funded by federal Medicaid provisions. This bill would require the department, with respect to an incarcerated youth with a disability who was enrolled in the Medi-Cal program prior to incarceration, to ensure that the youth's eligibility for Medi-Cal is suspended rather than terminated during the period of his or her incarceration, and that his or her eligibility remains suspended rather than terminated for as long as is permitted by federal law, except as specified. The bill would also require the department to ensure that, when the youth is released from incarceration, his or her Medi-Cal eligibility is fully restored on the day of release, and that he or she remains eligible unless and until the department determines that he or she is no longer eligible for Medi-Cal. This bill contains other related provisions and other existing laws. 04/06/2006-Set for hearing April 19.
04/19/06 1:30 p.m. - John L. Burton Hearing Room (4203) SEN HEALTH
SB 1662
Lowenthal		 Board of Psychology.

Spot Bill

 

 Existing law, the Psychology Licensing Law, makes the Board of Psychology responsible for enforcing and administering that law and authorizes it to employ all personnel necessary to perform its function. Under existing law, these provisions become inoperative on July 1, 2008, and are repealed on January 1, 2009. This bill would extend the operation of these provisions to July 1, 2013, and would repeal them on January 1, 2014, unless a later enacted statute deletes or extends those dates. 03/28/2006-Set for hearing April 17.
04/17/06 2:30 p.m. or upon adjournment of session - Room 3191 SEN BUSINESS, PROFESSIONS AND ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT
SB 1821
Aanestad		 Mental health. Spot Bill Existing law provides for appointment by the Governor of the Director and Chief Deputy Director of Mental Health, and sets forth their powers and compensation. This bill would make a technical, nonsubstantive change. 03/09/2006-To Com. on RLS.
SB 1825
Migden		 Mental health. Approve Existing law authorizes the Judicial Council to establish a tax-exempt public benefit nonprofit corporation or other tax-exempt entity, for the purposes of undertaking or funding any survey, study, publication, proceeding, or other activity authorized by law to be undertaken by the Judicial Council. This bill would require, on or before January 1, 2008, the Judicial Council to conduct and present to the Legislature a study of state statutes and regulations that relate to an adult with a mental illness or psychiatric condition in order to accomplish specified objectives. 03/09/2006-To Com. on JUD.
SCR 97
Battin		 Child Abuse Prevention Month. Approve This measure would acknowledge the month of April 2006 as Child Abuse Prevention Month, and encourage the people of the State of California to work together to support youth-serving child abuse prevention activities in their communities and schools. 04/06/2006-In Senate. To enrollment.

 

Legislative Priorities for Years
2007, 2005, 2004, 2003, 2002, 2001, 2000, 1999

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