MHAC Priority Legislation
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AB 2288 (Choi) MHAC Position: Watch
MHAC Position: Watch
Author: Choi
Date: 06/20/2022
Status: Passed
Advanced health care directives: mental health treatment: Would amend current healthcare directives statutes to clarify that health care decisions under those provisions include mental health treatment. Would not create a separate psychiatric advance directive or a new statutory form for that purpose.
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AB 2317 (Ramos) MHAC Position: Watch
MHAC Position: Watch
Author: Ramos
Date: 09/27/2022
Status: Passed
Children’s psychiatric residential treatment facilities: This bill would require DHCS to license and establish regulations for psychiatric residential treatment facilities that provide psychiatric services to individuals under age 21 in an inpatient, non-hospital setting.
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AB 2352 (Irwin): Behavioral Health and Psychiatric Advance Directives MHAC Position: Watch
MHAC Position: Watch
Author: Irwin
Date: 09/27/2022
Status: Passed
Existing law establishes the requirements for executing a written advance health care directive that is legally sufficient to direct health care decisions. Existing law provides a form that an individual may use or modify to create an advance health care directive. The statutory form includes a space to designate an agent to make health care decisions, as well as optional spaces to designate a first alternate agent and 2nd alternate agent. Existing law defines “health care decision,” as specified. Existing law authorizes an individual to provide an “individual health care instruction” as the individual’s authorized written or oral direction regarding a health care decision for the individual. Existing law confirms that the provisions relating to execution of advance health directives do not prohibit the execution of a voluntary standalone psychiatric advance directive. Existing law defines “advance psychiatric directive” as a legal document, executed on a voluntary basis by a person who has the capacity to make medical decisions and in accordance with the requirements for an advance health care directive in this division, that allows a person with mental illness to protect their autonomy and ability to direct their own care by documenting their preferences for treatment in advance of a mental health crisis.
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AB 2408 (Cunningham) MHAC Position: Watch
MHAC Position: Watch
Author: Cunningham
Date: 11/30/2022
Status: Died
Child users: addiction: This bill, the Social Media Platform Duty to Children Act, would impose on an operator of a social media platform a duty not to addict, as defined, child users and would, among other things, prohibit a social media platform from addicting a child user by any of certain means, including the use or sale of a child user’s personal data. The act would authorize a person authorized to assert the legal rights of a child user who suffers injury as a result of a violation of the act to bring an action against a violator to recover or obtain certain relief, including a civil penalty of up to $25,000 per violation per calendar year.
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AB 2581 (Salas) MHAC Position: Watch
MHAC Position: Watch
Author: Salas
Date: 09/25/2022
Status: Passed
Health care service plans: mental health and substance use disorders: provider credentials: Within health care service plans that provide coverage for mental health and substance use disorders, for provider contracts issued, amended or renewed after 1/1/2023, the health care service plan would be required to assess and verify the qualifications of a health care provider within 45 days after receiving a completed provider credentialing application.
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AB 2666 (Salas) MHAC Position: Support
MHAC Position: Support
Author: Salas
Date: 08/25/2022
Status: Vetoed
Behavioral Health Internship Grant Program: This bill would, subject to an appropriation, require the Department of Health Care Access and Information to develop and administer a grant program to allocate funding in the form of stipends, for students in behavioral health fields of study and practice, who are participating in unpaid internships or completing unpaid licensure hours at FQHCs. The bill would require the department, when making grants, to consider mental health professional shortage areas and underrepresented groups in the behavioral health workforce.
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AB 2817 (Reyes) MHAC Position: Watch
MHAC Position: Watch
Author: Reyes
Date: 08/26/2022
Status: Vetoed
House California Challenge Program: This bill would establish the House California Challenge Program, to be administered by the California Health and Human Services Agency, for the purpose of providing direct rental assistance to help persons experiencing homelessness obtain housing. Upon appropriation, the bill would require HHS to allocate $1B for purposes of the program each fiscal year for 5 years.
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SB 57 (Wiener) MHAC Position: Watch
MHAC Position: Watch
Author: Wiener
Date: 11/30/2022
Status: Vetoed
Controlled substances: overdose prevention program: This bill would create a pilot program for the City and County of San Francisco, the County of Los Angeles, the City of Los Angeles, and the City of Oakland to approve entities to operate overdose prevention programs that satisfy specified requirements including providing a hygienic space supervised by trained staff where people who use drugs can consume pre- obtained drugs, providing sterile consumption supplies, providing access or referrals to substance use disorder treatment, and that staff is authorized and trained to provide an opioid antagonist.
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SB 225 (Wiener) MHAC Position: Watch
MHAC Position: Watch
Author: Wiener
Date: 09/27/2022
Status: Passed
Health Care Coverage: Timely access to care: This bill would require a health care service plan or health insurer to incorporate timely access to care standards into its quality assurance systems and incorporate specified processes. The bill would authorize the Department of Managed Health Care to develop methodologies to demonstrate appointment wait time compliance and averages. The bill would authorize DMHC and the Department of Insurance to take compliance or disciplinary action, review and adopt standards concerning the availability of health care to ensure enrollees and insureds have timely access to care and make recommendations to the Legislature if DMHC or DOI finds that health care service plans or health insurers and providers have difficulty meeting the standards the departments develop.
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SB 516 (Eggman) MHAC Position: Oppose
MHAC Position: Oppose
Author: Eggman
Date: 11/30/2022
Status: Died
LPS Act: Certification for intensive treatment: review hearing: This bill would authorize the evidence considered in the certification review hearing for a 14 day hold under the Lanterman-Petris-Short Act to include information on the person’s medical condition and how that condition bears on certifying the person as a danger to themselves or to others or as gravely disabled.
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SB 528 (Jones) MHAC Position: Watch
MHAC Position: Watch
Author: Jones
Date: 09/29/2022
Status: Passed
Foster youth: Psychotropic Medication: This bill would require the State Department of Social Services to create an electronic health care portal, or use an existing portal, that will provide health care providers with access to the health information of a child in foster care that is included in the health and education summary and the completed and approved court forms for the administration of psychotropic medication. The foster care public health nurse would be required to update the electronic health care portal, and require the public health nurse to provide the child’s medical, dental, and mental health care information to health care providers, the child or their caregiver, and nonminor dependents as specified.
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SB 858 (Wiener) MHAC Position: Support
MHAC Position: Support
Author: Wiener
Date: 09/30/2022
Status: Passed
Health care service plans: discipline: civil penalties: 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. Existing law authorizes the Director of the Department of Managed Health Care to take disciplinary measures, including the imposition of civil penalties, against a licensee when the director determines that the licensee has committed an act or omission constituting grounds for disciplinary action. Under existing law, these civil penalties generally do not exceed $2500 per violation. Existing law also includes various provisions that assess specific civil and administrative penalties for certain violations. This bill would increase the base amount of the civil penalty to not less than $25,000 per violation, commencing January 1, 2024, which would be adjusted annually. The bill would multiply the amounts of other specified civil and administrative penalties by 4, commencing January 1, 2023 and would annually adjust those penalties. The bill would authorize the director to impose a corrective action plan to require future compliance with the act, under certain circumstances. If a health care service plan fails to comply with the corrective action plan in a timely manner, the bill would require the department to monitor the health care service plan through medical surveys, financial examinations, or other means necessary to ensure timely compliance.
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SB 903 (Hertzberg) MHAC Position: Watch
MHAC Position: Watch
Author: Hertzberg
Date: 09/29/2022
Status: Passed
Prisons: California Rehabilitation Oversight Board: Existing law requires the California Rehabilitation Oversight Board in the Office of the Inspector General to regularly examine the various mental health, substance abuse, educational, and employment programs for incarcerated persons and parolees under the Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation. This bill would additionally require the board to examine the department’s efforts to address the housing needs of incarcerated persons, including those with serious mental health needs, who are released to the community.
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SB 929 (Eggman) MHAC Position: Watch
MHAC Position: Watch
Author: Eggman
Date: 09/25/2022
Status: Passed
Community mental health services: Data Collection: Existing law requires DHCS to collect and publish annually: the number of people admitted for 72 hour holds, 14- and 30-day periods of intensive treatment, and 180-day postcertification intensive treatment, the number of individuals transferred to mental health facilities, and the number of people for whom conservatorships are established. This bill would require DHCS to also collect and publish annually quantitative information relating to, among other things, clinical outcomes for individuals placed in each type of hold, services provided in each category, waiting periods, and needs for treatment beds.
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SB 939 (Pan) MHAC Position: Watch
MHAC Position: Watch
Author: Pan
Date: 11/30/2022
Status: Died
Prescription drug pricing: This bill would prohibit a pharmacy benefit manager from discriminating against a covered entity or its pharmacy in connection with dispensing a drug subject to federal pricing requirements or preventing a covered entity from retaining the benefit of discounted pricing for those drugs. The bill would prohibit a drug manufacturer that is subject to federal pricing requirements from imposing preconditions, limitations, delays or other barriers to the purchase of covered drugs.
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