Bill Text: CA AB1070 | 2023-2024 | Regular Session | Enrolled

California Assembly Bill 1070

NOTE: There are more recent revisions of this legislation. Read Latest Draft

Bill Title: Physician assistants: physician supervision: exceptions.

Spectrum: Partisan Bill (Democrat 1-0)

Status: (Passed) 2023-10-13 - Chaptered by Secretary of State - Chapter 827, Statutes of 2023. [AB1070 Detail]

Download: California-2023-AB1070-Enrolled.html

Enrolled September 18, 2023

Passed IN Senate September 06, 2023

Passed IN Assembly September 14, 2023

Amended IN Senate June 28, 2023

Amended IN Assembly April 12, 2023

Amended IN Assembly March 23, 2023

CALIFORNIA LEGISLATURE— 2023–2024 REGULAR SESSION

Assembly Bill

No. 1070

Introduced by Assembly Member Low

February 15, 2023

An act to amend Section 3516 of the Business and Professions Code, relating to healing arts.

LEGISLATIVE COUNSEL'S DIGEST

AB 1070, Low. Physician assistants: physician supervision: exceptions.

Existing law, the Physician Assistant Practice Act, establishes the Physician Assistant Board within the jurisdiction of the Medical Board of California for the licensure and regulation of physician assistants. The act authorizes physician assistants to perform medical services as set forth by regulations and the act when those services are rendered pursuant to a practice agreement and under the supervision of a licensed physician and surgeon. Existing law prohibits a physician and surgeon from supervising more than 4 physician assistants at any one time.

This bill would also authorize a physician and surgeon to supervise up to 8 physician assistants at one time if all of the physician assistants are focused solely on performing in-home health evaluations to gather patient information and perform annual wellness visits or health evaluations that do not involve direct patient treatment or prescribing medication.

Vote: MAJORITY Appropriation: NO Fiscal Committee: YES Local Program: NO

The people of the State of California do enact as follows:

SECTION 1.

Section 3516 of the Business and Professions Code is amended to read:

3516.

(a) Notwithstanding any other law, a physician assistant licensed by the board shall be eligible for employment or supervision by a physician and surgeon who is not subject to a disciplinary condition imposed by the Medical Board of California prohibiting that employment or supervision.

(b) (1) Except as provided in paragraph (2) and in Section 3502.5, a physician and surgeon shall not supervise more than four physician assistants at any one time.

(2) Notwithstanding paragraph (1), a physician and surgeon may supervise up to, but no more than, eight physician assistants at one time, but only if the following conditions are satisfied by all supervised physician assistants:

(A) The physician assistants are focused solely on performing in home health evaluations.

(B) The physician assistants are performing in home health evaluations solely for the following purposes:

(i) Gathering patient information.

(ii) Performing an annual wellness visit or health evaluation, if it does not involve direct patient treatment or prescribing medication.

(3) A physician assistant who performs an in home health evaluation for the purposes specified in subparagraph (B) of paragraph (2) remains subject to all supervisory and scope requirements pursuant to this chapter and shall provide the supervising physician and surgeon with all information related to their evaluation under subparagraphs (A) and (B) of paragraph (2).

(c) The Medical Board of California may restrict a physician and surgeon to supervising specific types of physician assistants including, but not limited to, restricting a physician and surgeon from supervising physician assistants outside of the field of specialty of the physician and surgeon.

(d) For purposes of this section:

(1) “In home health evaluation” means a comprehensive physical exam, assessment of current and prior health conditions, a complete medication review, screening tests, health education, and assessment of social determination of health needs to be used for diagnosing individual medical conditions.

(2) “Annual wellness visit” means a preventive visit with correlating current procedural terminology codes performed annually to a patient, to be used for the purposes of diagnosing patient conditions during the annual wellness visit, which may include a nonphysical examination for patients covered by Medicare Part B for more than 12 months.