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, 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.
Existing law establishes various grant and loan programs for research, including, among others, the California Institute for Regenerative Medicine, California Firefighter Cancer Prevention and Research Program, and the Public Interest Research, Development, and Demonstration Program. This bill would establish the California Institute for Scientific Research within the Government Operations Agency. The bill would create the California Institute for Scientific Research Fund, upon appropriation by the Legislature, and require the moneys in the fund to be used by the Government Operations Agency to award grants and make loans to public or private research companies, universities, institutes, and organizations for scientific research and development, in specific areas of research, including, but not limited to, biomedical, behavioral, and climate research. This bill would create the California Institute for Scientific Research Council, as specified. The bill would require the council to, among other things, develop the strategic objectives and priorities of the institute and determine the research projects that will be funded by the California Institute for Scientific Research Fund, as specified. The bill would require a majority vote by the appointed members for the council for the approval of funding for any research project or proposal presented for funding. The bill would authorize the council to establish one or more scientific peer review panels consisting of experts in specified fields of research for the purposes of reviewing and prioritizing proposals on the basis of the track record of the investigators, scientific merit of the proposal, and potential benefit to the health and well-being of the population, natural resources, and environment of the state. This bill would require all research and development funded by the California Institute for Scientific Research Fund to be conducted under established standards of open scientific exchange, peer review, and public oversight. The bill would require the funds to be awarded on the basis of the research priorities established for the institute by the council and the scientific merit of the proposed research, as determined by an open, competitive, scientific peer review process that ensures objectivity, consistency, and high quality. Existing law, the California Affordable Drug Manufacturing Act of 2020, requires the California Health and Human Services Agency (CHHSA) or its departments to enter into partnerships to, among other things, address shortages in the market for generic prescription drugs and increase patient access to affordable drugs. The act also requires CHHSA to enter into partnerships resulting in the production, procurement, or distribution of generic prescription drugs, in accordance with specified conditions and procedures. The state has launched the CalRx Initiative, a program that in part serves to implement the act. This bill would require CHHSA, notwithstanding anything to the contrary in the above-described act, to enter into partnerships or contracts resulting in the development, production, procurement, or distribution of vaccines, by any entity that is authorized to do so under federal or state law, with the intent that these drugs be made widely available to public and private purchasers, providers, suppliers, and pharmacies. Under the bill, this requirement would be implemented through the CalRx Initiative and subject to an appropriation.
Existing law, the Community Assistance, Recovery, and Empowerment (CARE) Act, authorizes specified adult persons to petition a civil court to create a voluntary CARE agreement or a court-ordered CARE plan and implement services, to be provided by county behavioral health agencies, to provide behavioral health care, including stabilization medication, housing, and other enumerated services, to adults who are currently experiencing a severe mental illness and have a diagnosis identified in the disorder class schizophrenia and other psychotic disorders, and who meet other specified criteria. This bill would include bipolar I disorder in the criteria for a person to receive services under the CARE Act. By increasing the duties on the county behavioral health agencies, 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, if the Commission on State Mandates determines that the bill contains costs mandated by the state, reimbursement for those costs shall be made pursuant to the statutory provisions noted above.
(1) Existing law, the Lanterman-Petris-Short (LPS) Act, authorizes the involuntary commitment and treatment of persons with specified mental disorders. Under the act, when a person, as a result of a mental health disorder, is a danger to themselves or others, or is gravely disabled, the person may, upon probable cause, be taken into custody by specified individuals, including, among others, a peace officer and a designated member of a mobile crisis team, and placed in a facility designated by the county and approved by the State Department of Health Care Services for up to 72 hours for evaluation and treatment. Existing law defines "assessment" for those purposes to mean the determination of whether a person shall be evaluated and treated. This bill would require an assessment to consider reasonably available, relevant information as specified. The bill would also authorize an assessment to be used to assist specified individuals in developing an aftercare plan for an individual, if that individual has agreed to an aftercare plan and can be properly served without being detained. (2) Existing law provides a procedure for the appointment of a conservator for a person who is determined to be gravely disabled as a result of a mental disorder or an impairment by chronic alcoholism (hereafter LPS conservatorship) . Under existing law, a professional person in charge of an agency providing comprehensive evaluation or a facility providing intensive treatment may recommend a LPS conservatorship for a gravely disabled person in their care if the professional person determines that the person is unwilling to accept, or is incapable of accepting, treatment voluntarily. Under existing law, a professional person in charge of an agency providing comprehensive evaluation or a facility providing intensive treatment or a professional person in charge of providing mental health treatment at a county jail, or their designee, may recommend a conservatorship for a gravely disabled person without that person being an inpatient in a facility providing comprehensive evaluation or intensive treatment if specified conditions are met. This bill would additionally authorize recommendations for an LPS conservatorship if a determination is made that the gravely disabled person has demonstrated an inability to accept voluntary treatment due to apparent incapacity. The bill would expand the list of individuals or entities that may recommend a conservatorship for a gravely disabled person without that person being an inpatient in a facility providing comprehensive evaluation or intensive treatment to include, among others, the county agency providing investigations for conservatorships of the person. (3) Existing law separately provides for the establishment of a conservatorship for a person who is unable to properly provide for their personal needs or is substantially unable to manage their finances (hereafter probate conservatorship) . Existing law requires the officer providing conservatorship investigation, if they concur with the recommendation of the professional person or facility, to petition the superior court in the patient's county of residence to establish a conservatorship. Existing law requires the officer providing conservator investigation to investigate all available alternatives to conservatorship, including, among other things, assisted outpatient treatment, as specified, and the Community Assistance, Recovery, and Empowerment Act program. Existing law requires the officer to recommended conservatorship to the court only if no suitable alternatives are available. Existing law requires the officer to render to the court a comprehensive written report of investigation prior to the hearing and to set forth all alternatives available if the officer recommends either for or against conservatorship. This bill would specify probate conservatorships with or without major neurocognitive disorder powers in the list of available alternatives that the officer providing conservatorship investigation is required to investigate. In a county where probate conservatorship and LPS conservatorship duties are split between separate agencies, the bill would require LPS conservatorship referrals that include the presence of a major neurocognitive disorder to be reviewed by both agencies to ensure the continuity of evaluations. The bill would additionally require an officer providing conservatorship investigation to include a recommended individualized plan for treatment and care drawn from the documented list of less-restrictive alternatives in the written report described above if the officer recommends against an LPS conservatorship. The bill would also make various clarifying changes. By expanding the duties of county agencies that provide services related to probate conservatorships and LPS conservatorships, and by expanding the duties of the county officer providing conservatorship investigation, this bill would impose a state-mandated local program. (4) Existing law authorizes a conservator of the person, the estate, or the person and the estate to be appointed for a person who is gravely disabled as a result of a mental health disorder or impairment by chronic alcoholism for the purpose of providing individualized treatment, supervision, and placement. Existing law requires the creation of an individualized treatment plan within 10 days of the establishment of a conservatorship, as specified. Existing law requires the treatment plan to specify goals for the conservatee's treatment, the criteria by which the accomplishment of those goals can be adjudged, and a plan for reviewing the progress of the treatment. If a treatment plan is not developed or if the conservator fails to report to the court that the conservatee is no longer gravely disabled, existing law requires specified individuals, including a person designated by the county, to refer the matter to the court. Existing law requires the court, upon report by a person designated by the county that the goals have been reached and the person is no longer gravely disabled, to terminate the conservatorship. This bill would require an individualized treatment plan to specify goals for stabilization, the individual's evidenced-based treatment, and movement to a less-restrictive setting. The bill would require those goals to include the criteria by which accomplishment can be judged. The bill would require the treatment plan to be filed with the court, as specified, after it is developed. The bill would require the court to order the treating agency to remedy any perceived defects in a treatment plan if the plan does not meet the specified goals and criteria and would create procedures for remedying those defects and terminating the conservatorship. The bill would authorize the court, upon termination of the conservatorship, to refer the individual to assisted outpatient treatment or CARE court, as specified. This bill would prohibit the court from terminating the conservatorship prior to the end of the conservator's one-year mark if the conservatee cannot be located at any point during that one-year period, except as specified. The bill would require, when a county is filing a petition and the county is aware that the subject of the petition was, within the prior 6 months, a conservatee whose conservatorship was terminated before the one-year termination date, to include in its petition the circumstances that gave rise to the termination. Because this bill would increase the duties on county personnel, this bill would impose a state-mandated local program. (5) Existing law, the Community Assistance, Recovery, and Empowerment (CARE) Act, authorizes specified people to petition a civil court to create a CARE plan to provide an individualized, appropriate range of community-based services and supports to an eligible individual. Under the CARE Act, all reports, evaluations, diagnoses, and other information filed with the court that are related to the respondent are confidential, except as specified. This bill would authorize that information to be shared only by a court order or as approved by the respondent. If the information is used outside of the above-described proceedings, the bill requires a court order for that information to be shared. This bill would authorize a court, at any point after entry of a CARE agreement or adoption of a CARE plan, to order the respondent to an evaluation under the LPS without a petition from the county if the court believes the respondent has become gravely disabled. The bill would establish the procedures required before a court could issue an order pursuant to these provisions. (6) 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, if the Commission on State Mandates determines that the bill contains costs mandated by the state, reimbursement for those costs shall be made pursuant to the statutory provisions noted above.
Existing law makes it a crime to possess, cultivate, and administer specified controlled substances, including psilocybin and psilocyn. Existing law makes it a crime for a person to rent, lease, or make available for use any building or room for the purpose of storing or distributing any controlled substance. This bill would, until January 1, 2031, request the University of California to establish local pilots in up to 5 counties to allow for the research and development of psilocybin services for veterans and former first responders as part of the Veterans and Former First Responders Research Pilot Program ("Pilot Program") . The bill would require these university partners, overseeing each Pilot Program to be responsible for protocol design, institutional review board approvals, training of psilocybin facilitators, data collection, and reporting. The bill would require each local pilot to partner with licensed health care and licensed community-based providers that provide services and care to the target population. The bill would require psilocybin to be provided by or under the supervision of a practitioner who has experience in providing or overseeing psilocybin or other psychedelic therapy services. The bill would require that each person being considered for the Pilot Program meet specified criteria, including that they are 21 years of age or older and have been given specified assessments. This bill would request the University of California to report specified information about the Pilot Program to the Legislature, the Secretary of California Health and Human Services, and the Governor by January 15, 2030. The bill would establish the Veterans and Former First Responders Research Pilot Special Fund and would continuously appropriate the fund to the University of California for the purposes of these provisions. The bill would request the University of California to apply for and accept grants, donations, and federal funding for the purposes of the Pilot Program, and would require those moneys to be deposited in the fund.
Existing federal law provides for the Medicare Program, which is a public health insurance program for persons 65 years of age and older and specified persons with disabilities who are under 65 years of age. Existing federal law specifies parts of Medicare that cover specific services, such as Medicare Part B, which generally covers medically necessary services and supplies and preventive services. 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 a crime. Existing law provides for the regulation of health insurers by the Department of Insurance. Existing federal law additionally provides for the issuance of Medicare supplement policies or certificates, also known as Medigap coverage, which are advertised, marketed, or designed primarily as a supplement to reimbursements under the Medicare Program for the hospital, medical, or surgical expenses of persons eligible for the Medicare Program, including coverage of Medicare deductible, copayment, or coinsurance amounts, as specified. Existing law, among other provisions, requires supplement benefit plans to be uniform in structure, language, designation, and format with the standard benefit plans, as prescribed. Existing law prohibits an issuer from denying or conditioning the offering or effectiveness of any Medicare supplement contract, policy, or certificate available for sale in this state, or discriminating in the pricing of a contract, policy, or certificate because of the health status, claims experience, receipt of health care, or medical condition of an applicant in the case of an application that is submitted prior to or during the 6-month period beginning with the first day of the first month in which an individual is both 65 years of age or older and is enrolled for benefits under Medicare Part B. Existing law requires an issuer to make available specified Medicare supplement benefit plans to a qualifying applicant under those circumstances who is 64 years of age or younger who does not have end stage renal disease. This bill would delete the exclusion of otherwise qualified applicants who have end stage renal disease, thereby making the specified Medicare supplement benefit plans available to those individuals. The bill, on and after January 1, 2027, would prohibit an issuer of Medicare supplement coverage in this state from denying or conditioning the issuance or effectiveness of any Medicare supplement coverage available for sale in the state, or discriminate in the pricing of that coverage because of the health status, claims experience, receipt of health care, medical condition, or age of an applicant, except as specified, if an application for coverage is submitted during an open enrollment period, as specified in the bill. The bill would entitle an individual enrolled in Medicare Part B to a 90-day annual open enrollment period beginning on January 1 of each year, as specified, during which period the bill would require applications to be accepted for any Medicare supplement coverage available from an issuer, as specified. The bill would require the open enrollment period to be a guaranteed issue period. The bill would authorize premium rates offered to applicants during the open enrollment period to vary based on the applicants' age at the time of issue, as specified, but would prohibit the premiums from varying based on age after the contract is issued. 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. 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.
(1) Existing law establishes 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. The Medi-Cal program is, in part, governed and funded by federal Medicaid program provisions. Existing law establishes, under the Medi-Cal program, the Family Planning, Access, Care, and Treatment (Family PACT) Program. If Family PACT becomes inoperative, existing law requires all persons who have received, or are eligible to receive, comprehensive clinical family planning services pursuant to Family PACT to receive family planning services under other specified provisions of the Medi-Cal program or under the State-Only Family Planning Program, which is also established within the department for purposes of family planning services. This bill would require the department, subject to an appropriation, to develop a new program or to expand any existing state-only-funded health programs, in order to provide to Medi-Cal beneficiaries certain services or benefits that are otherwise covered under the Medi-Cal program but for any lack of, elimination of, reduction in, or limitation on, federal financial participation. For purposes of the expansion above, the bill would require the department to determine the services or benefits, which may include, but are not limited to, abortion and gender-affirming care, based on the levels of federal financial participation, as specified. (2) This bill would, subject to an appropriation, require the California Health and Human Services Agency to develop a new program, or to expand an existing state program, as applicable, to provide certain services or benefits that are otherwise covered under the Medi-Cal program but for any lack of, elimination of, reduction in, or limitation on, federal financial participation. Under the bill, these services or benefits would not be limited to the population of Medi-Cal beneficiaries. The bill would require the agency to determine the services or benefits, which may include, but are not limited to, abortion, family planning, and gender-affirming care, based on the needs of target populations and the levels of federal financial participation, as specified. The bill would create the Health Care Maintenance and Expansion Fund for purposes of distributing funding, if appropriated, for these services or benefits. The bill would authorize the agency to receive private donations, for deposit into the fund, to support implementation. (3) The bill would authorize modification and expansion of the State-Only Family Planning Program, subject to an appropriation, to facilitate implementation of the provisions described in paragraphs (1) and (2) , as specified.
Existing law establishes the California Health and Human Services Agency, which includes departments charged with the administration of health, social, and other human services. Under existing law, the Legislature finds that state government has an affirmative role in alleviating problems related to the inappropriate use of alcoholic beverages and other drug use and that its major objective is protection of the public health and safety, particularly where problems related to inappropriate alcohol use and other drug use are likely to cause harm to individuals, families, and the community. The agency convened the Behavioral Health Task Force to inform its work on behavioral health issues across the state. This bill, the California Overdose Death and Addiction Reduction Act of 2025, would require the California Health and Human Services Agency, on or before January 1, 2028, to direct the task force, or a successor group, to create a set of recommendations to support an implementation plan for reducing alcohol- and drug-related addiction deaths by 50% on or before 5 years from the date the task force provides the recommendations to the agency, but no later than January 1, 2033. The bill would authorize the task force to include additional members as deemed appropriate by the agency, including representatives from specified entities, experts, and providers, among others. The bill would require the agency to adopt the recommendations provided by the task force and require the agency to consider specified information, including quality and performance measures to establish minimum standards for effective delivery of services. The bill would require the agency, on or before July 1, 2033, to provide the Governor and the Legislature a report of the findings and recommendations related to the extent that the 2033 goal was met and how effective the recommendations of the task force were, and recommendations for beyond 2033 that will continue to reduce overdose deaths and addiction. The bill would also make related findings and declarations.
Existing law authorizes a county to establish a homeless adult and family multidisciplinary personnel team, as defined, with the goal of facilitating the expedited identification, assessment, and linkage of homeless individuals to housing and supportive services within that county and to allow provider agencies to share confidential information for the purpose of coordinating housing and supportive services to ensure continuity of care. This bill would authorize a county to also establish a behavioral health multidisciplinary personnel team, as defined, with the goal of facilitating the expedited identification, assessment, and linkage of a justice-involved person, as defined, diagnosed with a mental illness to supportive services within that county while incarcerated and upon release from county jail and to allow provider agencies and members of the personnel team to share confidential information, as specified, for the purpose of coordinating supportive services to ensure continuity of care. The bill would require the sharing of information permitted under these provisions to be governed by protocols developed in each county, as specified. This bill would authorize a behavioral health multidisciplinary personnel team to designate a qualified person to be a member of the team for a particular case and would require a member who receives information or records regarding a justice-involved person in their capacity as a member of the team to be under the same privacy and confidentiality obligations and subject to the same confidentiality penalties as the person disclosing or providing the information or records. The bill would also require the information or records to be maintained in a manner that ensures the maximum protection of privacy and confidentiality rights.
