Existing law requires the State Department of Public Health to conduct a program of epidemiological assessments of the incidence of Parkinson's disease and establish a system for the collection of information determining the incidence of Parkinson's disease. Existing law encourages the department to convene a task force comprised of researchers with expertise in Parkinson's disease, advocates for patients with Parkinson's disease, and other individuals with relevant expertise to provide support and advice for the implementation and funding of the program. Existing law requires the director to establish a statewide system for the collection of information determining the incidence of Parkinson's disease. This bill would require the department to establish the California Epilepsy Program for the purposes of epidemiological assessments of the incidence and prevalence of epilepsy and seizures. The bill would require the department to convene an advisory panel comprised of specified individuals to provide support and advice for the implementation of the program. The bill would authorize the department to seek private or public funding and to spend those funds for the purposes of the program, and would authorize the department to contract with various entities for the purposes of collecting and collating data. The bill would require the department to analyze available data, to prepare and publish reports on its internet website as necessary, and to publish on its internet website a listing of agencies that offer services to individuals affected by epilepsy, as specified.
This bill designates April 2026 as Parkinson's Disease Awareness Month in California. It directly affects state officials and the public by formally recognizing the importance of raising awareness for this specific health condition. The primary mechanism is a legislative proclamation that appears in the state statutes to mark the month. This action serves as an official acknowledgment of the disease without changing laws or funding.
This bill designates the month of March 2026 as Kidney Month in California to raise awareness about chronic kidney disease. It highlights the importance of early detection and screening, noting that many people with the condition are unaware they have it. The resolution aims to educate the public on prevention and the risks associated with kidney failure, particularly among marginalized communities.
Existing law establishes the State Department of Public Health to implement various programs throughout the state relating to public health. The department administers the California Wastewater Surveillance Dashboard that provides an overview of data from testing wastewater for SARS-CoV-2 virus in California. The data in the dashboard is generated by those participating in the department's California Surveillance of Wastewaters (Cal-SuWers) network, including the Cal-SuWers program, WastewaterSCAN, the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention National Wastewater Surveillance System, wastewater utilities, and academic, laboratory, and other state and federal partners. This bill would require the department, in consultation with participating wastewater treatment facilities, local health departments, and other subject matter experts, to maintain the Cal-SuWers network to test, as appropriate for public health use, for pathogens, toxins, or other public health indicators in wastewater. The bill would require participation in the Cal-SuWers network from local health departments and wastewater treatment facilities to be voluntary. The bill would authorize the department to coordinate with health care providers, local health departments, and emergency response agencies to ensure wastewater surveillance data is used for early intervention, outbreak response, epidemiological investigations, and public health planning. The bill would authorize the department to communicate to the general public, through a publicly accessible internet website, as specified, to provide transparency and public awareness of wastewater-based disease monitoring. The bill would authorize the department to utilize external funding sources, in addition to the department's existing, noncontinuously appropriated funding sources, to implement these provisions. The bill would make related findings and declarations.
Existing law establishes the California Interagency Council on Homelessness to oversee the implementation of Housing First guidelines and regulations, and, among other things, identify resources, benefits, and services that can be accessed to prevent and end homelessness in California. Existing law requires a state agency or department that funds, implements, or administers a state program that provides housing or housing-related services to people experiencing homelessness or who are at risk of homelessness to revise or adopt guidelines and regulations to include enumerated Housing First policies. Existing law specifies the core components of Housing First, including services that are informed by a harm-reduction philosophy that recognizes drug and alcohol use and addiction as a part of tenants' lives and where tenants are engaged in nonjudgmental communication regarding drug and alcohol use. This bill would authorize state programs to fund supportive-recovery residences, as defined, that emphasize abstinence under these provisions as long as the state program meets specified criteria, including that at least 90% of program funds awarded to each jurisdiction is used for housing or housing-based services using a harm-reduction model. This bill would specify requirements for applicants seeking funds under these programs and would require the state to perform periodic monitoring of select supportive-recovery residence programs to ensure that the supportive-recovery residences meet certain requirements, including that core outcomes of the supportive-recovery housing emphasize long-term housing stability and minimize returns to homelessness. The bill would also prohibit eviction on the basis of relapse, as specified. The bill would require, if a tenant is no longer interested in living in a supportive-recovery residence with an abstinence focus, is at risk of eviction, or is discharged from the program, the tenant to reside in the supportive recovery residence until the operator secures the tenant a new permanent housing placement option operated with harm-reduction principles that is also permanent housing. The bill would require supportive housing and services to support residents' access to and use of medications to treat behavioral and physical health conditions, as specified, and to provide overdose prevention training and overdose reversal medication to staff and residents, as specified. Existing law establishes the Department of Housing and Community Development and requires it to administer various programs that provide services to homeless individuals. This bill would require the department to adopt the most recent standards approved by the National Alliance for Recovery Residences or other national standards as the minimum standard for supportive-recovery residences that receive public funds under these provisions. The bill would require the department to establish a separate process for determining if the supportive-recovery residence complies with the core components of Housing First. The bill would require the department to verify compliance with the core components of Housing First for residences seeking Housing First certification, as specified. The bill would authorize the department to charge an annual fee to verify that supportive-recovery residences comply with the core components of Housing First in an amount not to exceed the reasonable cost of administering the program, not to exceed $100, and would establish the Supportive-Recovery Residence Program Fund for collection of the fee, to be available upon appropriation by the Legislature.
Existing law, the Compassionate Use Act of 1996, an initiative measure enacted by Proposition 215 at the November 6, 1996, statewide general election, declares that its purpose is, among other things, to ensure that seriously ill Californians have the right to obtain and use marijuana for medical purposes, as specified, and exempts from state criminal liability certain patients and their primary caregivers who possess or cultivate marijuana for the personal medical purposes of the patient. The Control, Regulate and Tax Adult-Use of Marijuana Act of 2016 (AUMA) , an initiative measure approved as Proposition 64 at the November 8, 2016, statewide general election, established a comprehensive system to legalize, control, and regulate the cultivation, processing, manufacture, distribution, testing, and sale of nonmedical marijuana. Existing law, the Medicinal and Adult-Use Cannabis Regulation and Safety Act (MAUCRSA) , among other things, consolidates the licensure and regulation of commercial medicinal and adult-use cannabis activities, including the retail sale of medicinal cannabis. MAUCRSA also authorizes specified licensees to provide free medicinal cannabis or medicinal cannabis products to medicinal cannabis patients if specified criteria are met. Existing law, the Medicinal Cannabis Patients' Right of Access Act, prohibits a local jurisdiction from adopting or enforcing any regulation that prohibits the retail sale by delivery within the local jurisdiction of medicinal cannabis to medicinal cannabis patients or their primary caregivers by medicinal cannabis businesses, as defined, or that has the effect of prohibiting the retail sale by delivery within the local jurisdiction of medicinal cannabis to medicinal cannabis patients or their primary caregivers, as specified. This bill, until January 1, 2029, would authorize a licensed microbusiness with an M-license, as defined, whose licensed activities include retail sale, manufacturing, distribution, and outdoor cultivation to directly ship certain medicinal cannabis or medicinal cannabis products to a medicinal cannabis patient in the state, if the licensed microbusiness complies with specified requirements, including that the medicinal cannabis is shipped by a common carrier, as described, the amount shipped to a medicinal cannabis patient in a single day does not exceed specified possession limits, and the package is received and signed for by someone 21 years of age or older. The bill would require the shipment to comply with specified laws and regulations governing cannabis and cannabis products sold by licensed retailers, as provided. If the medicinal cannabis patient is a qualified patient that possesses a valid physician's recommendation, the bill would require the licensed microbusiness to certify in writing that they verified the recommendation and would require the retailer to keep a copy of that certification for no less than 7 years. The bill would amend the Medicinal Cannabis Patients' Right of Access Act to, among other things, prohibit a local jurisdiction from adopting or enforcing any regulation that prohibits the retail sale by delivery within or shipment into the local jurisdiction of medicinal cannabis to medicinal cannabis patients or their primary caregivers by a licensed microbusiness, as specified. The bill would also authorize free medicinal cannabis or medicinal cannabis products provided to medicinal cannabis patients in compliance with MAUCRSA to be shipped to those patients by a licensed microbusiness with an M-license, as provided. To the extent this bill would impose additional duties on local jurisdictions, and to the extent the bill would expand the crime of perjury by requiring the licensed microbusiness to certify verification of physician recommendations, the bill would impose a state-mandated local program. The California Constitution requires the state to reimburse local agencies and school districts for certain costs mandated by the state. Statutory provisions establish procedures for making that reimbursement. This bill would provide that with regard to certain mandates no reimbursement is required by this act for a specified reason. With regard to any other mandates, this bill would provide that, if the Commission on State Mandates determines that the bill contains costs so mandated by the state, reimbursement for those costs shall be made pursuant to the statutory provisions noted above.
(1) Existing law, the Psychology Licensing Law, establishes the Board of Psychology to license and regulate psychologists and the practice of psychology. Existing law repeals the provision establishing the board on January 1, 2026. This bill would extend operation of the board to January 1, 2030. Existing law authorizes a person who is licensed as a psychologist at the doctoral level in another state or territory of the United States or Canada to offer psychological services in this state for up to 30 days per year. Existing law authorizes a person other than a licensed psychologist to perform psychological functions in preparation for licensure as a psychologist if the person is registered with the board as a registered psychological associate, and establishes requirements in that regard. This bill would require an out-of-state licensee to satisfy certain conditions to offer psychological services, including informing the client of the limited timeframe of the services and that the person is not licensed in California. The bill would require an applicant for registration as a psychological associate who was trained in an educational institution outside the United States or Canada to demonstrate to the satisfaction of the board that the applicant possesses a doctoral degree in psychology or education that is equivalent to a degree earned from a regionally accredited academic institution in the United States or Canada, as specified. Existing law establishes qualifications for registration as a psychological testing technician, including proof of completion of a bachelor's degree or graduate degree, or proof of current enrollment in a graduate degree program in psychology or in education with a field of specialization in educational psychology, counseling psychology, or school psychology. Existing law also establishes various fees relating to the licensure and regulation of the practice of psychology. This bill would expand the list of authorized areas of study for registration as a psychological testing technician to include neuroscience, cognitive science, or behavioral science, and would specify that the board shall make the final determination as to whether a degree or degree program meets the educational requirements. The bill would establish a fee of $25 to add or change a supervisor for a psychological testing technician. Existing law provides that a psychologist's license shall be suspended automatically during any time the holder of the license is incarcerated after conviction of a felony, and provides for the continued suspension of the license if, after a hearing, it is determined in the hearing that the felony for which the licensee was convicted is substantially related to the qualifications, functions, or duties of a licensee. Existing law requires any discipline ordered to cease if the conviction is overturned on appeal. This bill would revise and recast those provisions, including authorizing the board to decline to set aside the suspension when it appears to be in the interest of justice to do so. The bill would revise and recast provisions relating to suspended, revoked, and surrendered licenses and obtaining a new license after a license is void after not being renewed within 3 years. The bill would make various technical and other changes to the Psychology Licensing Law, including defining the term "client." (2) Existing law provides for the registration and regulation of research psychoanalysts and student research psychoanalysts by the Board of Psychology, and establishes acts for which the board may revoke or suspend registration and that are deemed unprofessional conduct. Existing law establishes fees for registration, which are deposited into the Psychology Fund. This bill, among other changes to the provisions regulating research psychoanalysts and student research psychoanalysts, would expand the list of acts constituting unprofessional conduct that would authorize the board to suspend or revoke a registration. The bill would revise education and training requirements for registration as a research psychoanalyst, including requiring an applicant to complete certain coursework or training in detection and treatment of alcohol and other chemical substance dependency, suicide risk assessment and intervention, and aging and long-term care. The bill would establish continuing professional development requirements for research psychoanalysts. The bill would require the board to adopt a program of consumer and professional education in matters relevant to the ethical practice of psychoanalysis. The bill would establish fingerprint hard card processing fees for out-of-state applicants, as specified. Existing law requires certain behavioral health professionals to complete training in human sexuality and to complete coursework or training in child abuse assessment and reporting, as specified. Existing law provides that the Board of Psychology and the Board of Behavioral Sciences are encouraged to include coursework regarding the assessment and reporting of elder and dependent adult abuse in the required training on aging and long-term care issues before licensure or license renewal. Existing law makes findings and declarations related to the training of certain licensed behavioral health professionals in the areas of child, elder, and dependent adult abuse assessment reporting. This bill would include research psychoanalysts in the behavioral health professionals subject to the above-described training requirements and provisions. The bill would make various technical and other changes to the Psychology Licensing Law. (3) Existing law establishes the Board of Behavioral Sciences in the Department of Consumer Affairs to regulate licensees under the Licensed Marriage and Family Therapist Act, the Educational Psychologist Practice Act, the Clinical Social Worker Practice Act, and the Licensed Professional Clinical Counselor Act, and authorizes the board to appoint an executive officer to exercise certain powers and perform specified duties. Existing law repeals the provision establishing the board and authorizing the board to appoint an executive officer on January 1, 2026. Existing law, until January 1, 2026, authorizes a person who holds a license in another jurisdiction of the United States as a marriage and family therapist, a clinical social worker, or a professional clinical counselor to provide those services in this state for a period not to exceed 30 days. Existing law specifies that a person who provides services pursuant to those provisions is deemed to have agreed to practicing under the jurisdiction of the board and to be bound by the laws of this state. This bill would extend the date of the operation of the board and of authorizing the board to appoint an executive officer to January 1, 2030, and would extend the date on which the provision authorizing a person who is licensed out-of-state as a marriage and family therapist, a clinical social worker, or professional clinical counselor to practice in this state to January 1, 2030. The bill would deem a person who is licensed in another jurisdiction who provides services to have attested under penalty of perjury to practicing under the jurisdiction of the board and to be bound by the laws of this state. By expanding the scope of the crime of perjury, the bill would impose a state-mandated local program. Existing law requires a registrant or applicant for licensure as a marriage and family therapist to pass a clinical examination, and establishes a fee of $250, which the board is authorized to increase by regulation to up to $500, for the clinical examination. This bill would specify that the clinical examination may be administered either by the board or by a public or private organization, and would revise the fee requirement so that if the examination is administered by a public or private organization, the fee would be paid directly to the organization. Existing law requires certain applicants for registration or licensure as a marriage and family therapist who completed graduate study on or before December 31, 2018, to submit to the board a certification by the applicant's educational institution that the institution's required curriculum for graduation and associated coursework includes certain instruction in alcoholism and other chemical substance dependency and in spousal or partner abuse assessment, detection, and intervention. This bill would delete that requirement. Existing law requires an applicant for licensure or registration as a professional clinical counselor to obtain a degree in a program that includes a minimum of 280 hours of face-to-face supervised clinical experience counseling individuals, families, or groups. Existing law requires a professional clinical counselor trainee to receive an average of at least one hour of direct supervisor contact for every 5 hours of direct clinical counseling performed each week and specifies that not more than 6 hours of supervision shall be credited during any single week. This bill would delete the provision limiting the number of hours of supervision credited in a single week to 6 hours. Existing law, effective August 29, 2022, until January 1, 2026, revised provisions related to supervision via videoconferencing. In this regard, existing law defines "face-to-face contact" for purposes of the definition of "one hour of direct supervisor contact" to mean in-person contact, contact via 2-way, real-time videoconferencing, or some combination of these. Existing law requires a supervisor within 60 days of the commencement of supervision to conduct a meeting with the supervisee during which the supervisor is required to assess the appropriateness of allowing the supervisee to receive supervision via 2-way, real-time videoconferencing, as specified, and to document the results of that assessment. Existing law prohibits the supervisor from utilizing supervision via 2-way, real-time videoconferencing if their assessment finds it is inappropriate. Existing law repeals these provisions on January 1, 2026. This bill would extend the operation of those provisions indefinitely. By extending the operation of requirements, the violation of which would be a crime, this bill would impose a state-mandated local program. Existing law requires an applicant for licensure as a marriage and family therapist, clinical social worker, or licensed professional clinical counselor to provide copies of tax returns for each year of experience claimed for purposes of satisfying the experience requirement for licensure. This bill would require an applicant to provide the board with a copy of the applicant's most recent pay stub for experience gained during a tax year that has not ended by the date the application for licensure is received. Existing law requires direct supervisor contact for certain experience required for licensure as a marriage and family therapist, clinical social worker, or licensed professional clinical counselor. Existing law, until January 1, 2026, authorizes contact to be via in-person contact, 2-way, real-time videoconferencing, or some combination of these, as specified. Existing law, effective January 1, 2026, authorizes only a supervisee working in an exempt setting, as specified, to obtain direct supervisor contact via 2-way, real-time videoconferencing. This bill would make the above-described authorization related to videoconferencing permanent and would consequently delete the latter provision authorizing direct supervisor contact via videoconferencing in exempt settings. Existing law requires the board to issue a retired license to a marriage and family therapist, licensed educational psychologist, licensed professional clinical counselor, or clinical social worker upon satisfaction of specified requirements. Existing law also authorizes a person who holds a license in another jurisdiction of the United States as a marriage and family therapist, professional clinical counselor, or clinical social worker to practice in this state for a period not to exceed 30 consecutive days if they satisfy certain conditions, and deems a person who provides services pursuant to those provisions to have agreed to practicing under the jurisdiction of the board and to be bound by the laws of this state. The bill would revise the requirements for the issuance of a retired license, including submitting a statement under penalty of perjury that, among other things, the information provided on the application is true and correct. The bill would require out-of-state marriage and family therapists, professional clinical counselors, and clinical social workers, as a condition of practicing in this state, to submit a signed statement under penalty of perjury acknowledging that they are subject to the jurisdiction of the board and agreeing to be bound by the laws of this state. By expanding the crime of perjury, the bill would impose a state-mandated local program. The bill would revise the education, experience, and other qualifications required for licensure as an educational psychologist. The bill would make various technical and other changes to the Licensed Marriage and Family Therapist Act, the Educational Psychologist Practice Act, the Clinical Social Worker Practice Act, and the Licensed Professional Clinical Counselor Act. (4) This bill would incorporate additional changes to Section 27 of the Business and Professions Code proposed by SB 861 to be operative only if this bill and SB 861 are enacted and this bill is enacted last. (5) The California Constitution requires the state to reimburse local agencies and school districts for certain costs mandated by the state. Statutory provisions establish procedures for making that reimbursement. This bill would provide that no reimbursement is required by this act for a specified reason.
Existing law requires the Department of Insurance to regulate health insurers. Existing law requires an individual or small group health insurance policy issued, amended, or renewed on or after January 1, 2017, to include, at a minimum, coverage for essential health benefits pursuant to the federal Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act. Existing law requires a health insurance policy to cover the same health benefits that the benchmark plan, the Kaiser Foundation Health Plan Small Group HMO 30 plan, offered during the first quarter of 2014, as specified. This bill would express the intent of the Legislature to review California's essential health benefits benchmark plan and establish a new benchmark plan for the 2027 plan year for health insurers. The bill would require, commencing January 1, 2027, if the United States Department of Health and Human Services approves a new essential health benefits benchmark plan for the state, as specified, the benchmark plan for health insurers to include certain additional benefits, including coverage for specified fertility services and specified durable medical equipment.
Existing law establishes the Medi-Cal program, which is administered by the State Department of Health Care Services and under which qualified low-income individuals receive health care services. The Medi-Cal program is, in part, governed and funded by federal Medicaid program provisions. Existing law generally imposes penalties on a person who negligently, willfully, or maliciously discloses the results of a human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) test to a third party in a manner that identifies or provides identifying characteristics of the person to whom the test results apply, as specified. Existing law, notwithstanding the above-described restrictions, authorizes the recording of the HIV test results by the physician who ordered the test in the test subject's medical record and authorizes other disclosure of the results without written authorization of the test subject, or the subject's representative, to the test subject's providers of health care, excluding a regulated health care service plan, for purposes of diagnosis, care, or treatment of the patient. This bill would authorize a provider of health care to disclose the results of an HIV test that identifies or provides identifying characteristics of a Medi-Cal beneficiary without written authorization of the test subject, or the subject's representative, to the Medi-Cal managed care plan to which the beneficiary is assigned, if applicable, and to external quality review organizations conducting external quality reviews of Medi-Cal managed care plans, for the purpose of administering quality improvement programs, including, but not limited to, value-based payment programs and healthy behavior incentive programs, designed to improve HIV care for Medi-Cal beneficiaries. Under the bill, HIV test results that do not identify or provide identifying characteristics of the test subjects would be authorized for disclosure without written authorization by the Medi-Cal managed care plan to departmental staff for the above-described purpose. The bill would make certain clarifying or declaratory statements with regard to related provisions.
Existing law creates the Vocational Nurse Education Program within the Department of Health Care Access and Information for persons agreeing to serve in an eligible county health facility, state-operated health facility, or a health workforce shortage area, before completing vocational nursing school. Existing law authorizes a person who qualifies for admission to a vocational nursing program to apply for funding under the program, as specified. Existing law establishes the Vocational Nurse Education Fund for the purpose of promoting the education of vocational nurses and related administrative costs. This bill would create the California Nurse-Midwifery Education Fund within the department for the purpose of establishing California-based, master's level, nurse-midwifery education programs within the California State University, the University of California, or both. The bill would require the department to administer the fund, and receive moneys from the General Fund for these purposes upon appropriation by the Legislature. The bill would require the department to establish a competitive application criteria to ensure the optimal sites selection for the education programs within the California State University system or the University of California, would require the department to ensure that a master's degree is an option for students as the culminating degree of the education programs receiving funds, and would require the education programs to meet specified requirements. The bill would also require the fund to support the annual operating costs for the development, operation, and maintenance of the education programs through the graduation of the first cohort of matriculated students, or 5 years, whichever is shorter.
