Bill Text: CA SB494 | 2013-2014 | Regular Session | Introduced

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

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Bill Title: Health care providers.

Spectrum: Partisan Bill (Democrat 2-0)

Status: (Passed) 2013-10-09 - Chaptered by Secretary of State. Chapter 684, Statutes of 2013. [SB494 Detail]

Download: California-2013-SB494-Introduced.html

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BILL NUMBER: SB 494	INTRODUCED
	BILL TEXT


INTRODUCED BY   Senator Monning
   (Principal coauthor: Senator Hernandez)

                        FEBRUARY 21, 2013

   An act to amend Section 3500 of the Business and Professions Code,
relating to health care providers.


	LEGISLATIVE COUNSEL'S DIGEST


   SB 494, as introduced, Monning. Health care providers: California
Health Benefit Exchange.
   Existing law, the federal Patient Protection and Affordable Care
Act, requires each state to, by January 1, 2014, establish an
American Health Benefit Exchange that makes available qualified
health plans to qualified individuals and qualified employers, as
specified, and meets certain other requirements. Existing law
establishes the California Health Benefit Exchange (the Exchange)
within state government for that purpose.
   This bill would state the intent of the Legislature to ensure that
qualified health plans participating in the California Health
Benefit Exchange provide an adequate network of primary care
providers, including non-physician providers.
   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 3500 of the Business and Professions Code is
amended to read:
   3500.  In its concern with the growing shortage and geographic
maldistribution of health care services in California, the
Legislature intends to establish in this chapter a framework for
development of a new category of health manpower--the physician
assistant. 
   It is the intent of the legislature to ensure that qualified
health plans participating in the California Health Benefit Exchange,
created by Section 100500 of the Government Code, provide an
adequate network of primary care providers, including non-physician
providers. 
   The purpose of this chapter is to encourage the more effective
utilization of the skills of physicians, and physicians and
podiatrists practicing in the same medical group practice, by
enabling them to delegate health care tasks to qualified physician
assistants where this delegation is consistent with the patient's
health and welfare and with the laws and regulations relating to
physician assistants.
   This chapter is established to encourage the utilization of
physician assistants by physicians, and by physicians and podiatrists
practicing in the same medical group, and to provide that existing
legal constraints should not be an unnecessary hindrance to the more
effective provision of health care services. It is also the purpose
of this chapter to allow for innovative development of programs for
the education, training, and utilization of physician assistants.