Bill Text: CA AB491 | 2011-2012 | Regular Session | Amended

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

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Bill Title: General acute care hospitals: cardiac catheterization.

Spectrum: Slight Partisan Bill (Republican 3-1)

Status: (Passed) 2012-09-29 - Chaptered by Secretary of State - Chapter 772, Statutes of 2012. [AB491 Detail]

Download: California-2011-AB491-Amended.html

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BILL NUMBER: AB 491	AMENDED
	BILL TEXT

	AMENDED IN SENATE  JULY 6, 2012
	AMENDED IN ASSEMBLY  MAY 10, 2011
	AMENDED IN ASSEMBLY  APRIL 15, 2011
	AMENDED IN ASSEMBLY  APRIL 5, 2011

INTRODUCED BY   Assembly Member  Portantino  
Miller 

                        FEBRUARY 15, 2011

   An act to  amend Section 120990 of the Health and Safety
Code, relating to public health   add and repeal Section
969.7 of the Streets and Highways Code, relating to public roads
 .



	LEGISLATIVE COUNSEL'S DIGEST


   AB 491, as amended,  Portantino   Miller
 .  HIV testing.   Public roads: fire
suppression.  
   Existing law authorizes a county board of supervisors, after
adopting a resolution, as specified, determining that the general
county interest demands the improvement or repair of a privately
owned road, to improve or repair that road and to pay for those
improvements or repairs in a like manner as improvements or repairs
of county highways.  
   This bill, until January 1, 2017, would grant a board of
supervisors the same authority with respect to improvement and repair
of a public road that is not a county highway or part of the county
maintained system, if necessary for purposes of fire suppression.
 
   Existing law establishes the State Department of Public Health and
sets forth its powers and duties, including, but not limited to,
administration of a program to provide information, establish testing
sites, and award contracts for AIDS early intervention projects to
provide appropriate medical treatment to prevent or delay the
progression of disease that results from HIV infection, to coordinate
related services, and to provide information and education to
prevent the spread of the infection to others. Existing law sets
forth the powers and duties of an HIV counselor in a project HIV
counseling and testing site funded by the department through a local
health jurisdiction or its agents.  
   Existing law requires a medical care provider, prior to ordering
an HIV test, to provide information about the test to the patient,
inform the patient that there are numerous treatment options
available, inform the patient that a person who tests negative for
HIV should continue to be routinely tested, and obtain informed
consent, as specified.  
   This bill would revise the requirements for the provision of
information to, and obtaining the informed consent of, a patient in
connection with HIV testing. 
   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 969.7 is added to the 
 Streets and Highways Code   , to read:  
   969.7.  (a) A board of supervisors, after it has determined by a
resolution adopted by a four-fifths vote of its membership that the
general county interest demands the improvement or repair of a public
road that is not a county highway and is not in the county
maintained system, may improve or repair the road if the improvements
or repairs are necessary for the purpose of fire suppression. Those
improvements or repairs shall be made and paid for in the same manner
as improvements or repairs of county highways. Proceedings under
this section shall not cause the road to become a county highway.
   (b) This section shall remain in effect only until January 1,
2017, and as of that date is repealed, unless a later enacted
statute, that is enacted before January 1, 2017, deletes or extends
that date.  
  SECTION 1.    The Legislature finds and declares
all the following:
   (a) HIV testing has entered a new era as policymakers have begun
to understand that ensuring that more people know their HIV status is
critical to maintaining health and reducing the spread of the virus.
A person's awareness of his or her HIV status leads to treatment,
better survival rates, and preventing transmission.
   (b) The California Office of AIDS estimates that up to 39,000
Californians have HIV and do not know it. People who do not know
their HIV status do not begin life-prolonging treatments, and they
continue to expose others to HIV through unprotected risk behaviors.
   (c) Research shows that when people learn they are infected with
HIV, they take steps to protect their health and the health of their
partners. In a 2005 meta-analysis of sexual behaviors, persons who
knew their HIV status were 68 percent less likely to engage in
unprotected intercourse with uninfected partners.
   (d) According to the federal Centers for Disease Control and
Prevention, cohort studies have demonstrated that HIV-infected
persons who are unaware of their infection do not reduce risk
behaviors. Persons tested for HIV who do not return for test results
might even increase their risk for transmitting HIV to partners.
   (e) Additionally, the earlier a person is diagnosed, the sooner he
or she can access medical care and other prevention services to
further prevent transmission and disease progression.
   (f) Because medical treatment that lowers HIV viral load might
also reduce risk for transmission to others, early referral to
medical care could prevent HIV transmission in communities while
reducing a person's risk for HIV-related illness and death.
   (g) For all of these reasons, routine HIV testing is essential to
any comprehensive HIV prevention program.
   (h) With an eye toward making HIV testing more routine, the
federal government has adopted a national goal of six million HIV
tests each year.
   (i) It is the intent of the Legislature that the State of
California accomplish both of the following:
   (1) Make every effort to ensure that HIV testing is routinely
available in physicians' offices, hospitals, clinics, and every other
public and private medical and nonmedical setting in which HIV
testing is administered.
   (2) Fulfill its fair share of the national testing goal by seeking
to test 550,000 Californians each year.  
  SEC. 2.    Section 120990 of the Health and Safety
Code is amended to read:
   120990.  (a) Prior to ordering a test that identifies infection
with HIV, a medical care provider or an HIV counselor who is
authorized to administer an HIV test pursuant to Section 120917 shall
obtain the informed consent of the person being tested, as defined
by the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and
provide information regarding HIV, the risks and benefits of testing,
the implications of HIV test results, and how test results will be
communicated. The medical care provider or HIV counselor shall
provide the opportunity to ask questions and advise the person being
tested that he or she has the right to decline the test. If a person
declines the test, the medical care provider or HIV counselor shall
document that fact.
   (b) This subdivision shall apply to testing in clinical and
nonclinical settings, provided that the test performed in a
nonclinical setting is classified as waived under the federal
Clinical Laboratory Improvement Act (CLIA) (42 U.S.C. Sec. 263a).
   (c) A separate written consent form for obtaining informed consent
for HIV testing is not required. This informed consent for HIV
testing may be obtained orally. Nothing in this section shall be
construed to eliminate the need for general informed consent for
medical care in writing, where that written consent is otherwise
required by law. This requirement does not apply to a test performed
at an alternative site pursuant to Sections 120890 or 120895. Nothing
in this section shall be construed to allow a person to administer a
test for HIV unless that person is otherwise permitted under current
law to administer an HIV test.
   (d) For those patients who have positive test results for a test
that identifies infection with HIV, the medical care provider or HIV
counselor shall provide the person being tested with linkages to
care, and shall document that this information has been provided.
Linkages to care shall include providing information orally or in
writing about available treatment options and voluntary partner
notification services, and answering questions that the patient may
have. It shall also include providing the patient with contact
information for HIV medical care, and support and social services, in
writing.
   (e) Nothing in this section shall preclude a medical examiner or
other physician from ordering or performing a test to detect HIV on a
cadaver when an autopsy is performed or body parts are donated
pursuant to the Uniform Anatomical Gift Act (Chapter 3.5 (commencing
with Section 7150) of Part 1 of Division 7).
   (f) (1) The requirements of subdivision (c) do not apply when
blood is tested as part of a scientific investigation conducted
either by a medical researcher operating under the approval of an
institutional review board or by the department, in accordance with a
protocol for unlinked testing.
   (2) For purposes of this subdivision, "unlinked testing" means
blood samples that are obtained anonymously, or that have the name or
identifying information of the individual who provided the sample
removed in a manner that prevents the test results from ever being
linked to a particular individual who participated in the research or
study.
   (g) Nothing in this section shall be construed to permit any
person to unlawfully disclose an individual's HIV status, or to
otherwise violate provisions of Section 54 of the Civil Code, the
Americans With Disabilities Act of 1990 (Public Law 101-336), or the
California Fair Employment and Housing Act (Part 2.8 (commencing with
Section 12900) of Division 3 of Title 2 of the Government Code),
which prohibit discrimination against individuals who are living with
HIV, or who test positive for HIV, or are presumed to be
HIV-positive.