Existing law that governs the labor relations of public employees and employers, including, among others, the Meyers-Milias-Brown Act, the Ralph C. Dills Act, provisions relating to public schools, and provisions relating to higher education prohibits employers from taking certain actions relating to employee organization, including imposing or threatening to impose reprisals on employees, discriminating or threatening to discriminate against employees, or otherwise interfering with, restraining, or coercing employees because of their exercise of their guaranteed rights. Those provisions of existing law further prohibit denying to employee organizations the rights guaranteed to them by existing law. This bill would prohibit a public employer from questioning a public employee, a representative of a recognized employee organization, or an exclusive representative regarding communications made in confidence between an employee and an employee representative in connection with representation relating to any matter within the scope of the recognized employee organization's representation. The bill would also prohibit a public employer from compelling a public employee, a representative of a recognized employee organization, or an exclusive representative to disclose those confidential communications to a third party. The bill would not apply to a criminal investigation or when a public safety officer is under investigation and certain circumstances exist.
Existing law establishes the California Community Colleges, administered by the Board of Governors of the California Community Colleges, as one of the segments of public postsecondary education in the state. Existing law requires the board to appoint a chief executive officer, known as the Chancellor of the California Community Colleges. Existing law establishes community college districts throughout the state, under the administration of community college district governing boards, and authorizes these districts to provide instruction at the community college campuses they operate. Existing law establishes the Part-Time Community College Faculty Health Insurance Program, which authorizes the governing board of a community college district to provide a program of health insurance for part-time faculty, multidistrict part-time faculty, and their dependents. Existing law requires the chancellor, by June 15 of each year, to apportion to each community college that establishes a program an amount that equals up to12 of the total cost of the individual premiums required to be paid for the health insurance coverage of participating part-time faculty, multidistrict part-time faculty, and their dependents, and to apportion any remaining funds to each community college district that establishes a program and meets certain criteria, up to the total cost of the individual premiums required to be paid for the health insurance coverage of the participants, as provided. If funds appropriated for purposes of the program remain after those apportionments, existing law requires that the balance revert to the General Fund annually, as specified. This bill would instead require that the balance be deposited into the Part-Time Community College Faculty Health Insurance Program Fund, which the bill would create. The bill would continuously appropriate the moneys in the fund to the chancellor for purposes of the above-described apportionments, as specified. This bill would state the intent of the Legislature that, by January 1, 2030, each community college district commence negotiations with the exclusive representatives for part-time community college faculty to offer health insurance benefits to part-time and multidistrict part-time community college faculty and their eligible dependents.
Existing law provides for the regulation of various chemicals, including chemicals contained in drugs, dietary supplements, and food products. This bill would prohibit an entity, as defined, from manufacturing, distributing, or offering for sale in this state a product that contains tianeptine or that is marketed as containing tianeptine. The bill would make a violation of these provisions punishable by a civil penalty not to exceed $2,500 for a first violation and not to exceed $5,000 for each subsequent violation, upon an action brought by the Attorney General, a city attorney, or a county counsel. The bill would entitle a prevailing plaintiff to an award of reasonable attorney's fees and costs.
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 by, and funded pursuant to, federal Medicaid program provisions. Existing federal law, Public Law 119-21, enacted on July 4, 2025, sets forth various changes to different health care programs, including certain requirements for Medicaid eligibility with regard to work or community engagement reporting, redeterminations, and cost sharing, among other factors, for certain Medicaid populations pursuant to a specified implementation timeline. Existing law, the federal Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, imposes a certain assessment on an applicable large employer, as defined, that offers full-time employees and their dependents the opportunity to enroll in minimum essential coverage, and for whom one or more full-time employees have been certified as having enrolled in a qualified health plan for which a premium tax credit or cost-sharing reduction is allowed or paid. This bill would create the Employer Responsibility for Medi-Cal Trust Fund to consist of new taxes and deposits, including employer penalties specified in the Budget Act of 2026. The bill would continuously appropriate moneys in the fund to the department to fund the costs of administering the Medi-Cal program in a manner necessary to prevent loss of or to restore health care coverage, benefits, or access to care following the passage of Public Law 119-21 and subsequent state budget actions. The bill would state that these provisions would become operative only if the Medicaid provisions of Public Law 119-21 are not repealed prior to January 1, 2027. By creating a continuously appropriated fund, the bill would make an appropriation. This bill would declare that it is to take effect immediately as an urgency statute.
Existing law, the California Health Facilities Financing Authority Act, establishes the California Health Facilities Financing Authority, which has authority to, among other things, make secured or unsecured loans to, or purchase secured or unsecured loans of, any participating health institution in accordance with an agreement between the authority and the participating health institution to refinance indebtedness incurred by that participating health institution, as specified, in connection with projects undertaken, for health facilities acquired, or for working capital. Existing law also authorizes the authority to award grants to eligible clinics and health facilities, as specified. Existing law establishes the California Health Facilities Financing Authority Fund, a continuously appropriated fund, to carry out the purposes of the act. This bill, the Medical Debt Relief Act of 2026, would establish the medical debt relief program, which would be administered by the authority. The bill would require the authority to enter into an interagency agreement with the Department of Health Care Access and Information to implement the program. The bill would require the authority and department to convene a stakeholder advisory group, as specified, no later than July 1, 2027, to advise on the development, implementation, and administration of the program. The bill would require the stakeholder advisory group, on or before January 1, 2028, to develop recommendations for the authority and department, including, among others, criteria for the ranking and priority of eligible recipients to receive discharge of their medical debt. This bill would authorize the authority, in consultation with the department, to, among other things, contract with a medical debt relief coordinator, as defined, for purposes of acquiring medical debt of eligible recipients either directly from a providing health institution or from a debt buyer, as specified. The bill would require the authority to, among other things, maintain books and records of all the medical debt acquired and canceled. The bill would require the authority to maintain a public internet website for information about the program. This bill would create the California Medical Debt Relief Program Account within the California Health Facilities Financing Authority Fund and would make all moneys in the account available, upon appropriation by the Legislature, to the authority for carrying out the purposes of the Medical Debt Relief Act of 2026. The bill would require the authority, in consultation with the department, to provide a report to the Legislature and Governor by January 1 of each year, starting January 1, 2028. Existing law requires a hospital to report specified financial and utilization data to the Department of Health Care Access and Information, including, among other things, total operating expenses, and deductions from revenue, such as bad debts and charity care. This bill would require a hospital to report to the department outstanding medical debt owed to the hospital, including debt amount, bill adjustments, source of coverage, whether charity care or discount was provided, demographic data, ZIP Code, and whether the debt led to litigation or wage garnishment.
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 by, and funded pursuant to, federal Medicaid program provisions. Existing law requires the department to implement an enhanced care management (ECM) benefit designed to address the clinical and nonclinical needs on a whole-person-care basis for certain target populations of Medi-Cal beneficiaries enrolled in Medi-Cal managed care plans. Under existing law, target populations include, among others, high utilizers with frequent hospital admissions, short-term skilled nursing facility stays, or emergency room visits, and individuals experiencing homelessness. Existing law authorizes a county, or an agency representing a county, to develop a peer support specialist certification program, subject to departmental approval. Under existing law, these specialists are individuals, at least 18 years of age, who self-identify as having lived experience with the process of recovery from mental illness, substance use disorder, or both, as specified. Existing law requires the department to seek any federal waivers that it deems necessary to establish a demonstration or pilot project for the provision of peer support services in counties that agree to participate. This bill would require the department to require, as a condition of providing ECM, that any ECM provider, whose caseload of members meets certain criteria, maintain an interdisciplinary care team that includes at least one peer support specialist or trainee, as defined, who is integrated into ECM service delivery and available to support ECM members. The bill would set forth the functions of a peer support specialist or trainee for ECM purposes. The bill would require the department to allow an ECM provider to satisfy the requirement through any combination of staffing models, as specified. The bill would require the department to ensure that Medi-Cal managed care plan contracts, policies, and guidance reflect the requirement and to establish monitoring and compliance mechanisms to ensure that ECM providers implement the requirement. The bill would require the department to recognize virtual, telephonic, and technology-enabled peer support service delivery as meeting the integration requirement. Under the bill, an ECM provider subject to these provisions would have until January 1, 2028, to achieve full compliance, as specified. The bill would prohibit the department, a county, a Medi-Cal managed care plan, or a Medi-Cal provider, as applicable, from disqualifying a peer support specialist solely or primarily on the basis of a criminal background check, fingerprint-based background check, or similar screening that is a condition of employment, contracting, certification, credentialing, enrollment, or participation in providing peer support services. Under the bill, this restriction would be implemented to the extent not in conflict with federal law, and the restriction would not prohibit background checks under specified circumstances. The bill would also authorize consideration of an individual's criminal record as part of their overall fitness for the position of peer support specialist if the criminal record has a nexus to that position or its duties. The bill would condition implementation of these provisions on receipt of any necessary federal approvals and the availability of federal financial participation.
Existing law, the Knox-Keene Health Care Service Plan Act of 1975, provides for the licensure and regulation of health care service plans by the Department of Managed Health Care and makes a willful violation of the act's requirements a crime. Existing law provides for the regulation of health insurers by the Department of Insurance. Existing law also provides for the Medi-Cal program, which is administered by the State Department of Health Care Services, under which qualified low-income individuals receive health care services pursuant to a schedule of benefits. Existing law sets forth specified coverage requirements for health care service plan contracts and health insurance policies. Existing law generally authorizes a health care service plan or health insurer to use utilization controls to approve, modify, delay, or deny requests for health care services based on medical necessity. Existing law requires health care service plans and health insurers, as specified, within 6 months after the relevant department issues specified guidance, or no later than March 1, 2025, to require all of their staff who are in direct contact with enrollees or insureds in the delivery of care or enrollee or insured services to complete evidence-based cultural competency training for the purpose of providing trans-inclusive health care for individuals who identify as transgender, gender diverse, or intersex. This bill would require a health care service plan contract or health insurance policy issued, amended, renewed, or delivered on or after the bill's operative date that provides outpatient prescription drug benefits to cover up to a 12-month supply of a United States Food and Drug Administration (FDA) -approved prescription hormone therapy, and the necessary supplies for self-administration, that is prescribed by a network provider within their scope of practice and dispensed at one time, as specified. The bill would make the same prescription hormone therapy a covered benefit under the Medi-Cal program, as specified. The bill would prohibit a plan or an insurer from imposing utilization controls or other forms of medical management limiting the supply of this hormone therapy to an amount that is less than a 12-month supply, but would not prohibit a contract, a policy, or the Medi-Cal program from limiting refills that may be obtained in the last quarter of the plan, policy, or coverage year if a 12-month supply of the prescription hormone therapy has already been dispensed during that year. The bill would exclude a Medi-Cal managed care plan contracting with the State Department of Health Care Services from these requirements. The bill would repeal these provisions on January 1, 2035. This bill would prohibit a subscriber, enrollee, policyholder, or insured from being excluded from enrollment or participation in, being denied the benefits of, or being subjected to discrimination by, any health care service plan or health insurer licensed in this state, on the basis of race, color, national origin, age, disability, or sex. The bill would define discrimination on the basis of sex for those purposes to include, among other things, sex characteristics, including intersex traits, pregnancy, and gender identity. The bill would prohibit a health care service plan or health insurer from taking specified actions relating to providing access to health programs and activities, including, but not limited to, denying or limiting health care services to an individual based upon the individual's sex assigned at birth, gender identity, or gender otherwise recorded. The bill would prohibit a health care service plan or health insurer, in specified circumstances, from taking various actions, including, but not limited to, denying, canceling, limiting, or refusing to issue or renew health care service plan enrollment, health insurance coverage, or other health-related coverage, or denying or limiting coverage of a claim, or imposing additional cost sharing or other limitations or restrictions on coverage, on the basis of race, color, national origin, sex, age, or disability, as specified. Because a violation of the bill's requirements by a health care service plan would be a crime, the bill would impose a state-mandated local program. Existing law requires a pharmacist to dispense, at a patient's request, up to a 12-month supply of an FDA-approved, self-administered hormonal contraceptive pursuant to a valid prescription that specifies an initial quantity followed by periodic refills. This bill would additionally require a pharmacist to dispense, at a patient's request, up to a 12-month supply of an FDA-approved, prescription hormone therapy pursuant to a valid prescription that specifies an initial quantity followed by periodic refills, unless an exception is met. 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. This bill would declare that it is to take effect immediately as an urgency statute.
This measure would urge the United States Congress and the President of the United States to immediately restore and extend the enhanced Affordable Care Act premium tax credits.
Existing law establishes the licensure and regulation of health facilities by the State Department of Public Health, including, among others, general acute care hospitals. A violation of these provisions is a crime. Under existing law, a general acute care hospital is required to provide certain basic services, including medical, nursing, surgical, anesthesia, laboratory, radiology, pharmacy, and dietary services. Existing law authorizes a general acute care hospital to provide various special or supplemental services if certain conditions are met. Existing regulations define a supplemental service as an organized inpatient or outpatient service that is not required to be provided by law or regulation. This bill would, beginning ____, include perinatal services as a basic service. The bill would require, on or before ____, the department to establish a process to approve or deny a "perinatal service compliance plan" to meet the requirement to provide perinatal services. The bill would require, on or before ____, any general acute care hospital that does not provide perinatal services to submit a "perinatal service compliance plan to the department, with specified information. By expanding the scope of a crime, this 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 no reimbursement is required by this act for a specified reason.
Existing federal law, the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (PPACA) , requires each state to establish an American Health Benefit Exchange to facilitate the purchase of qualified health benefit plans by qualified individuals and qualified small employers. Existing state law creates the California Health Benefit Exchange, also known as Covered California, to facilitate the enrollment of qualified individuals and qualified small employers in qualified health plans as required under PPACA. Existing law requires the Exchange to apply for a federal waiver to allow persons otherwise not able to obtain coverage through the Exchange because of their immigration status to obtain coverage from the Exchange. This bill would delete that requirement and would instead require the Exchange, no sooner than January 1, 2027, and upon appropriation by the Legislature for this purpose, to administer a program to allow persons otherwise not able to obtain coverage by reason of immigration status to enroll in health insurance coverage in a manner as substantially similar to other Californians as feasible, consistent with federal guidance and given existing federal law and rules. The bill would require the Exchange to undertake outreach, marketing, and other efforts to ensure enrollment, which would begin on October 1, 2028. The bill would also require the Exchange to adopt an annual program design for each coverage year to implement the program, provide appropriate opportunities for stakeholders, including the Legislature, and the public to consult on the design of the program, and report to the Department of Finance and the Legislature on progress toward implementation, as specified. The bill would establish the Covered California for All Fund in the General Fund, to be administered by the Exchange, into which user fees, appropriations, and other funds would be deposited to be used upon appropriation to pay for the administration of the program.
